Beware. The fixers have come to Washington. "Fix" because this one little word, in a close race with "run," is now the most dangerous word in the English language. Fix and run, you see, are words that betray the false metaphor upon which most of today's economic vernacular is built: economy as machine.
· A CNN headline reads: "Obama's priority: Fixing the economy."
· Paul Krugman says that what's interesting about the Bush Administration "is that there's no sign that anybody's actually thinking about 'well, how do we run this economy?'"
· Mark Ames of The Nation thinks hiring Larry Summers "to fix the economy makes as much sense as..."
With Google's help I could go on. But even in social studies we learned that FDR and a coven of interventionists -- channeling John Maynard Keynes -- messed with the monetary system and dropped largess from on high to fix the Depression. This was referred to as "priming the pump."
Linked article likens the economy to the ecosystem as a complex adaptive system that can and will experience episodes of wild pitching, bucking, ebbs and flows but almost always returns to a steadier state known as “ordered chaos”…. when left alone.
This is why we remain incredulous when a handful of decision-makers think that they can replace the billions of micro-actions and information exchanges that take place on a real-time basis in the real world when they say they are going to “fix” the economy or “fight” global warming.
The power that is wielded, whether it’s through bailouts or environmental legislation (we’ve a dandy we’ll share later this week), quickly runs up against this reality and soon merely becomes power for power’s sake… or to make it more palatable for 24 hr. news cycle consumption, “work for work’s sake”.
Friedrich Hayek warned about this consolidation of decision-making authority in The Road to Serfdom as it was wholly inadequate to effectively allocate resources and to where, ultimately, it resorted to coercion in order to get anything done. And we've got to do "something", right?
And $825 billion would appear to be “prime for the pump” for plenty of coercion.
UPDATE #1: or... measure once, cut twice:
Obama believes the current economic situation and the state of our energy, health care and education systems create a sense of urgency that puts pressure on Congress to act in a fast and decisive manner: “People's attention is on our government right now, and that means a president can rally the American people in ways that in normal times, you can't do.”
What could possibly go wrong with this set of circumstances? Y’all better rally, now.
The Tribune sends children to do the adult’s work. Read more of shamelessly pandering interview, here.
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4 comments:
I'm sure that a certain Darwinian natural selection process would take place if government interference in the economic process no longer took place. That makes perfect sense.
And if we let the chips fall where they may, would it really matter to my bottom line if Bob & Carol Smith of St. Louis resort to sleeping in their car in St. Louis with the 4 and 7 year olds? Or if 93 year old Connie Black, no living family, had lived beyond her modest retirement means? Would it be at the tip of my every waking thought?
I suppose not. I got mine (At least for now).
But what, I wonder, would have happened to my humanity knowing I had no problem knowing programs to help them out of their predicament -- some food, clothing, shelter, medicine, job training -- were taken away because I wanted to stay true to a pure economic principle and not intervene when the financial hurricane blows through? Ignoring cries of "Help! Help! Help!"? Going in only when the relief contracts had been signed (with all the "right-thinking" companies) to lend a hand to those stranded?
Would I have "fixed" things then? Would they be "running" more efficiently?
- Mongo Basking in the Warm Sunshine in Celebration of Dubya & Friends' Final Weekend!
$825 bil is some sort of hefty glorified food stamp program.
Tell you what, Mongo, whatever amount of this stimulus package is devoted to abject poverty/social safety net stuff, we'll collect and spend.
In return, we don't collect and spend the balance ($750-800 bil ?) of the package.
You can sleep and I can stay true to a pure economic principal.
A win-win all the way around... its all about compromise and post-partisanship, right.
Nicely put Dean. Because ultimately, with Congress, every bail out package, heck every spending bill becomes an exercise in buying votes. Mongo does not acknowledge the huge safety net already in place to help less fortunate Americans.
B-Daddy, I wonder how many citizens in our country die outright from starvation and/or cold on a yearly basis?
Not the relative handful of extraordinary circumstances brought about by abandonment, neglect or abuse... I'm talking about the classic "slipped through the net" variety that our vast network of government programs and faith-based charities missed.
I can't imagine it's much.
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