Fighting for the American Way of Life

Soon after the 911 attacks the president addressed the American people and instructed us to "go shopping" lest the terrorist win. That set an alarm bell that is still ringing in my mind and has only grown louder with the more recent economic events. It is a little dangerous making bold statements about economic issues to Darren as he has actually read important thinkers like Malthus, Smith, Marx, Kaynes ect... none of which I have read, except for some Marx. My thoughts on this topic are relatively unencumbered by the educational process. (All that I have read of Marx made a lot of sense with the exception of men holding wives in common). Even so, in light of all the "economic news" of late, I have a few uneducated questions.

What IS a jobless recovery? What is recovering and for whom? If speculation drives the markets up but there are no jobs, how can the consumers afford the "junk from the man"? Isn't that what drives the whole thing?

If I remember correctly FDR pushed the US into a new era of economic management by borrow/spending on infrastructure investments. The idea was that there would be a short term gain of increased economic activity, and a long term investment which would eventually pay back through increased productivity. Ronald Reagan gave us the idea that increasing the take home pay of the capitalized was the best way to help the poor and middle class. No need to focus on where the investment actually goes, the act of freeing it from government control will unleash magical vibes. Today we have eliminated the “voodoo” aspect of Reaganomics and just focus on subsidizing the capitalized without looking for any further benefit. Is it the right thing to do? Could there be wiser options? Who cares, they are too big to fail.

We have lost the vocabulary to differentiate between the consumptive economy, the productive economy and the parasitic economy. Not that parasites are a bad thing, no one could live without a colony of bacterial in the gut to digest food, but their survival is not the primary measure of the health of an individual. If I went to the emergency room with broken legs from falling off a scaffolding and the attending physician focused on the survival of the bacteria in my system and ignored everything else, we might assume there is a problem. Yet the doctors overseeing the economy have eyes only for the players who have never produced a single item needed by a human being or delivered any of those products to a population where they are needed, the aptly named FIRE sector, Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. Lets pour a little more fuel on.

Here’s a random thought. Is it ethical to create the economic machinery to turn housing into an investment market, the foundation of the FIRE sector? Are there such things as basic human needs which everyone should have without bearing the burden of profit creation? What if water systems were operated this way? Police and fire protection? Healthcare seems headed that way with mandatory insurance coverage looming. This is a topic for another post/rant.