Nice humor bit. You know, some people will take that seriously.... -Cameron
Gruss Gott wrote: > The lead article at Slate today is about how American corporate > managers have become the laughingstock of the world because they can > no longer manage "complex systems" as they were once famous for doing. > > If you want to read it, you can go to the link, but really, I thought, > what's so hard to understand? The economy we have, with all its > volatility, is exactly the economy any sane person would have > predicted after the wholesale decline of regulation, as both a reality > and an idea, in the eighties and nineties. And who has kept up the > drumbeat for deregulation, not only here but everywhere, if not those > screwy, and tenured, free-market economists? Their whole job for the > last thirty years has been to prop up the egomania and greed of > corporate CEOs by making that greed and ego-mania look both positive > and unavoidable. As a result, the gambling side of capitalism has > driven every other side away, to a chorus of bleats from the left > that, Gosh, something big and bad was bound to happen, and an > accompanying chorus from the right that even saying such a thing was > treason. > > Let's review. At the end of the 1970s, it was decided by some people > that they weren't getting rich enough fast enough, and that they were > tragically hampered in their efforts by government regulations that > dictated, for example, that foods called by some generally understood > name, such as "milk" actually had to be milk--not a milk-like product, > not a milk-containing product, but truly milk, from cows. We had > "stagflation" I remember it well. It might have gone away, or the > shock of oil prices at the time might have induced "entrepreneurs", as > they called themselves, to invent something new, but they went whining > to the Republicans and the Republicans installed that phoney, Ronald > Reagan, who installed another bunch of phonies in various offices of > the regulatory agencies, and those phonies said that businesses were > perfectly capable of reglating themselves, which everyone knew was a > crock, since they had never regulated themselves and were openly > getting rid of regulations so that they wouldn't have to regulate > themselves or be regulated by anyone. Yes, capitalism is a shell game > and all salesmen have a little of the snake-oil in them, which is what > makes it fun and profitable, but also makes it persistently > unscrupulous. The apologists for the "Reagan Devolution" were "Free > Market" economists, whose idea of a human being, based on their > experience of themselves, was a perfectly rational and isolated male > who always acts in his own selfish interest. In addition to > themselves, they were, of course, describing people with sociopathic > personality disorder. These economists did what was in their selfish > best interests to do -- they promoted and excused all the aspects of > human nature that Jesus himself had found abhorrent and they made the > world we have today. > > The managers of our businesses learned what they know from these guys > in their business schools, and guess what, that's why they can't > manage their way out of a paper bag, because they're unregulated! The > purpose of regulations is three-fold. 1. They prevent the "failure of > the commons", a concept that describes why unregulated markets become > more and more criminal -- if the unscrupulous run things, then the > scrupulous have to give up some of their scruples just to save > themselves, and so the whole system gets more and more criminal. 2. > They give customers assurance that the things they spend their money > on are more or less reliable. and 3. They keep the system relatively > simpler than it is when there are no regulations, so the system is > easier to understand and manage. What was it they said about the > subprime mess? Oh, yeah, neither the buyers or the sellers of sliced > and diced mortgage-backed securities knew what they were buying or > selling. And they were the experts! > > I don't hate capitalism. Capitalism has enabled the printing of lots > of good books that had been out of print for a long time and also the > spread of redleaf lettuce and those delicious blue potatoes that I > like so much. But unregulated Capitalism has done a wonderful job of > certain other things, too -- consolidating the ruling class, > increasing the class divide in our country and around the world, > destabilizing lots of third-world governments, and accelerating the > pollution of the natural world, climate change, and population growth, > while worsening the physical health of almost everyone. It has also > provided us with a lots of cheap entertainments and goods that we > didn't know we needed (Bratz dolls, anyone?). But the failure of > economists to understand human nature, especially the complexity of > relationships and the interplay of self-interest and morality, has > enabled them to fatally simplify our world and exalt such dopey ideas > as "creative destruction". They have led the government down the > dead-end path of thinking that the government serves the economy > rather than vice versa. > > When I read about rightwing jerks attacking Rev. Wright for telling > the truth when they themselves have created the mess we are in (huge > expensive war, nose-diving economy, rotting infrastructure, climate > change dead ahead, Constitution in shambles, White House occupied by > delusional idiot) I know we have entered, not the golden age that the > shallow, ignorant economists predicted, but a true iron age of > conflict, death, and destruction. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:256655 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
