I don't pretend to understand all of this...
...but I think I am starting to get it. And it's pretty scary. At the common sense level, that little "Cost of the Iraq War" counter I've had running on this blog for as long as I can remember simply has to be connected to the economic problems we are facing.
It feels to me like the example from Economics 101 about "The Commons." I didn't take any Economics classes, but I've had this example relayed to me from people who have. If there is a finite amount of grass on which to graze, all farmers will make sure that they don't overgraze because if all of the grass is eaten, nobody can graze their sheep or whatever. That's the idea of the free market. The problem is that some farmers are greedy and raise more sheep than the finite amount of grass can sustain.
It seems to me that the entire U.S. political and economic system (I challenge you to separate the two) is geared towards transferring wealth from the masses to the pockets (and off-shore bank accounts) of the few. The government does nothing to help out people who are losing their homes - it steps in to protect the lenders. And when the market tanks (what should be considered a "correction" by those who espouse the power of a free market economy) the government steps in and cuts interest rates. That doesn't do anything to help me pay my PG&E bill. The only effect the rate cut had on me personally is that it made the share price of IBM stock fall only $1 instead of $2. On paper, that saves my net worth a whopping $32. But since that stock exists somewhere in the ether for me, it does nothing to help me and my family through difficult economic times. It does nothing to get Rachel a new job. It does nothing to my mortgage payment. It only helps the super rich, and to a lesser extent the slightly rich.
Endless growth is not sustainable. But you can manipulate things (borrow money to buy fertilizer and squeeze more production out of the commons) to defer the inevitable collapse of an unsustainable system.
It feels like that's what's going on. The collapse is inevitable, and those that have the power are gobbling up every last blade of grass.
Anyway - I started reading this a while ago...
And then I put it aside to read some McSweeney's and other great books I got for Christmas. But I'm going back to it. It's out in paperback now.
Here's a little video clip from the author...
It feels to me like the example from Economics 101 about "The Commons." I didn't take any Economics classes, but I've had this example relayed to me from people who have. If there is a finite amount of grass on which to graze, all farmers will make sure that they don't overgraze because if all of the grass is eaten, nobody can graze their sheep or whatever. That's the idea of the free market. The problem is that some farmers are greedy and raise more sheep than the finite amount of grass can sustain.
It seems to me that the entire U.S. political and economic system (I challenge you to separate the two) is geared towards transferring wealth from the masses to the pockets (and off-shore bank accounts) of the few. The government does nothing to help out people who are losing their homes - it steps in to protect the lenders. And when the market tanks (what should be considered a "correction" by those who espouse the power of a free market economy) the government steps in and cuts interest rates. That doesn't do anything to help me pay my PG&E bill. The only effect the rate cut had on me personally is that it made the share price of IBM stock fall only $1 instead of $2. On paper, that saves my net worth a whopping $32. But since that stock exists somewhere in the ether for me, it does nothing to help me and my family through difficult economic times. It does nothing to get Rachel a new job. It does nothing to my mortgage payment. It only helps the super rich, and to a lesser extent the slightly rich.
Endless growth is not sustainable. But you can manipulate things (borrow money to buy fertilizer and squeeze more production out of the commons) to defer the inevitable collapse of an unsustainable system.
It feels like that's what's going on. The collapse is inevitable, and those that have the power are gobbling up every last blade of grass.
Anyway - I started reading this a while ago...
And then I put it aside to read some McSweeney's and other great books I got for Christmas. But I'm going back to it. It's out in paperback now.
Here's a little video clip from the author...
posted by Eric Soderstrom at 11:52 AM
1 Comments:
What are you? A liberal?
Yeah - economics are a complex thing & government being the regulatory agent for businesses is inherently tied to the economy.
The theory, if I understand the argument correctly, is that if businesses are successful, it will trickle down to the masses. At least, that is the claim. I think the fault with the claim, is that when starting at the top to make businesses more profitable, there are no incentives for those at the top to share that wealth. Yes, they will hire people to expand - if they HAVE to. If they can get by with making salaried people work double the hours - hey more money for that already robust retirement account.
The converse argument is that spending the money on the poor will lead to mass abuse of the system. Will there be abuse at both ends of the spectrum? Of course. Is it too complicated an issue for me to come up with a simplistic solution - absolutely. My thought is that if it is a simple solution, it probably has some huge gaping holes. I think that there needs to be balance, but I don't know where that balance point is. I know the Bush administration is waaayyyy off center though, so I am somewhat excited that he will be moving on to greener pastures soon (although not soon enough).
Here's to hoping that some genius will come up with a plan that will help & that people will listen to said genius.
-Joe
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