If we study the problems outside the force-field of mythological beliefs, we find that there are no systemic solutions, there are only partial, local solutions.
David, you raise an issue I consider highly important but rarely if ever discussed: there is only a limited sum of disposable income and capital to invest, and if we need to invest (say) $20 trillion to reshore industry, rebuild infrastructure, expand the electrical grid, etc.--everything those swooning over a "new Roaring 20s" see happening--that's $20 trillion that can't be spent on consumption. Reshore industry or continue over-consuming via debt, choose one.
If the state continues creating "money" to fund both, we'll see 10% inflation and then 20%, defeating the purpose of the money-creation.
Ira, I think I appreciate your point. My point is simply that every solution has intrinsic limits, and so trying to apply any solution without regard to its limits is doomed to fail.
Charles, yes, over-centralization / concentration of wealth/power generates systemic fragility and sclerosis (i.e. inability to adapt) because incumbents and vested interests have the power to lock down the system to suit their desires, crippling adaptation and dooming the system to collapse. Financial trickery has "worked" for 15 years to mask the rot but the bill is coming due at long last. Yes, solutions are more likely to be adaptive (i.e. successful), and so will household-based solutions.
My basic point is the system is incapable of becoming adaptive and so counting on top-down systemic solutions is the path to disappointment. We have to generate our own solutions.
"There are several reasons for the economy not working for most Americans, but a key one is the financial industry too often doesn’t support the real economy, jobs and growth. Adding insult to injury, the industry too often engages in wealth extraction for the few rather than wealth creation for the many. The results are wealth transfer, concentration, and hoarding by the top 10% at the expense of everyone else. This isn’t just bad for economic and social justice (and our democracy), but it also leads to financial instability, crashes and bailouts for Wall Street."
Tech, "the market", and certainly the state NEVER WERE solutions to anything.
Anyone believing that they were also believed as strongly in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and "free love." As the great economist Thomas Sowell has been quoted as saying, "there are no such things as solutions, there are only trade offs." Quit thinking like an old hippie.
Thomas Sowell is fond of saying;"There are no solutions, there are only trade offs". It is also necessary to properly define a problem, before a realistic attempt at dealing with it can begin.
What we currently face is a vast surplus of corruption, malice and ignorance. What is lacking is principles, character and disciple. All three require personal responsibility. Which is sadly lacking in this day and age. Technology, the Market and the State are abstracts. They mean different things to different people. When you cross any of them with faith, you get the types of distortions and disruptions we have seen for centuries. Especially the State. Government is simply an authority cult. It is much akin to a religion. Its based upon the idea that some people have the "right" to control others. That it is some how "right" for them to do things, that would be wrong for anyone not a member of the Cult to do. It is only through massive indoctrination programs that this passes from one generation to another. This book examines the cult of authority that has grown up around the concept of the State/Government.
As for technology, it is simply a tool. Like any tool it can and is abused. But it is our minds and the tools that our minds create that set us apart. Those tools can make our lives safer, more comfortable and secure. But if abused they can result in our down fall.
Then there is the Market. A vast number of books have been written about it. But at its most fundamental it is simply the transactions of humans (Human Action...). Crossing that with various types of State, distorts and disrupts it. One has only to look around to see the dire results of that.
A book titled the Survival of the richest by Donald Jeffries, looks at how corruption, greed and short sighted fools have distorted the market, the system itself and society. Which lies at the heart of the wealth inequality that Mr Smith has often written of.
The solution is a multi tierd system. Something skin to South Africa. The vast majority will live in extreme poverty, there is a privileged few scientists, military etc and the a tiny fraction who live off shore. Bottom line is there are too many people, not enough resources and a financial system that has divorced itself from reality, or a highly nuanced wealth transfer system, depending on the degree of skill you assign to the shot callers.
In other words, any "solution" must leave existing profit streams untouched and the power pyramid as-is. Given this constraint, and the fragility created by over-optimization, the only "solutions" that are acceptable to those at the top of the pyramid are play-acting "solutions", proposals presented as magical fixes that actually fix nothing, or create new problems--the definition of Anti-Progress.
Unquote
Henry Ford you cannot have both a FIRE economy and an industrial economy in the USA
The FIRE economy would squeeze out the industrial economy
It turned out he was right
Warren Buffett is a FIRE type
A Tesla cost three times a BYD car with similar quality and features
And actually we don’t even need electric cars to live in any case
Humans are not omniscient. Because of the limits of human knowledge there are problems that are incapable of a market, technological or governmental fix. Because of the imperfect
state of human knowledge, I think the best way to solve problems is through a policy of laissez faire. A policy of laissez faire will not create a Land of Cockaigne or heaven on earth. I would make the much more modest claim that a policy of laissez faire, again given the limits of human knowledge, is the best way to solve problems that are amendable to a human solution.
@CHS - Thank you for your mediation on the centralization of power, and perpetuation of that centralization of power through propaganda. We all urgently need to break out of the propaganda's spell, and start creating our own local sustainable solutions.
To assume that the government is a solution to anything is insane history proves it. Free markets are better and then we need to protect ourselves from bad ideas through non participation voting with our feet or our money. maybe??? j.t.
Homo sapiens is successful because it has a large brain that adapts to current conditions. Look at all the climates where humans are successful. From the Inuit at the North Pole to the tribes in the Amazon to the Nepalese and Tibetans in the Himalayas to the Arabs in the desert.
All of it, the tech, the markets, and the state, could disappear tomorrow, and humans would adapt. Aliens could invade, and humans would adapt.
Thank you for the insightful comments.
David, you raise an issue I consider highly important but rarely if ever discussed: there is only a limited sum of disposable income and capital to invest, and if we need to invest (say) $20 trillion to reshore industry, rebuild infrastructure, expand the electrical grid, etc.--everything those swooning over a "new Roaring 20s" see happening--that's $20 trillion that can't be spent on consumption. Reshore industry or continue over-consuming via debt, choose one.
If the state continues creating "money" to fund both, we'll see 10% inflation and then 20%, defeating the purpose of the money-creation.
Ira, I think I appreciate your point. My point is simply that every solution has intrinsic limits, and so trying to apply any solution without regard to its limits is doomed to fail.
Charles, yes, over-centralization / concentration of wealth/power generates systemic fragility and sclerosis (i.e. inability to adapt) because incumbents and vested interests have the power to lock down the system to suit their desires, crippling adaptation and dooming the system to collapse. Financial trickery has "worked" for 15 years to mask the rot but the bill is coming due at long last. Yes, solutions are more likely to be adaptive (i.e. successful), and so will household-based solutions.
My basic point is the system is incapable of becoming adaptive and so counting on top-down systemic solutions is the path to disappointment. We have to generate our own solutions.
warm regards, charles
"There are several reasons for the economy not working for most Americans, but a key one is the financial industry too often doesn’t support the real economy, jobs and growth. Adding insult to injury, the industry too often engages in wealth extraction for the few rather than wealth creation for the many. The results are wealth transfer, concentration, and hoarding by the top 10% at the expense of everyone else. This isn’t just bad for economic and social justice (and our democracy), but it also leads to financial instability, crashes and bailouts for Wall Street."
FYI: https://t.e2ma.net/webview/9lf4vg/6225636c706790b749dbed36046eabcf
Mr. Smith,
Tech, "the market", and certainly the state NEVER WERE solutions to anything.
Anyone believing that they were also believed as strongly in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and "free love." As the great economist Thomas Sowell has been quoted as saying, "there are no such things as solutions, there are only trade offs." Quit thinking like an old hippie.
Thomas Sowell is fond of saying;"There are no solutions, there are only trade offs". It is also necessary to properly define a problem, before a realistic attempt at dealing with it can begin.
What we currently face is a vast surplus of corruption, malice and ignorance. What is lacking is principles, character and disciple. All three require personal responsibility. Which is sadly lacking in this day and age. Technology, the Market and the State are abstracts. They mean different things to different people. When you cross any of them with faith, you get the types of distortions and disruptions we have seen for centuries. Especially the State. Government is simply an authority cult. It is much akin to a religion. Its based upon the idea that some people have the "right" to control others. That it is some how "right" for them to do things, that would be wrong for anyone not a member of the Cult to do. It is only through massive indoctrination programs that this passes from one generation to another. This book examines the cult of authority that has grown up around the concept of the State/Government.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10836816-the-most-dangerous-superstition
As for technology, it is simply a tool. Like any tool it can and is abused. But it is our minds and the tools that our minds create that set us apart. Those tools can make our lives safer, more comfortable and secure. But if abused they can result in our down fall.
Then there is the Market. A vast number of books have been written about it. But at its most fundamental it is simply the transactions of humans (Human Action...). Crossing that with various types of State, distorts and disrupts it. One has only to look around to see the dire results of that.
A book titled the Survival of the richest by Donald Jeffries, looks at how corruption, greed and short sighted fools have distorted the market, the system itself and society. Which lies at the heart of the wealth inequality that Mr Smith has often written of.
https://www.amazon.com/Survival-Richest-Corruption-Marketplace-Conspiracy/dp/1510720650
The solution is a multi tierd system. Something skin to South Africa. The vast majority will live in extreme poverty, there is a privileged few scientists, military etc and the a tiny fraction who live off shore. Bottom line is there are too many people, not enough resources and a financial system that has divorced itself from reality, or a highly nuanced wealth transfer system, depending on the degree of skill you assign to the shot callers.
Quote
In other words, any "solution" must leave existing profit streams untouched and the power pyramid as-is. Given this constraint, and the fragility created by over-optimization, the only "solutions" that are acceptable to those at the top of the pyramid are play-acting "solutions", proposals presented as magical fixes that actually fix nothing, or create new problems--the definition of Anti-Progress.
Unquote
Henry Ford you cannot have both a FIRE economy and an industrial economy in the USA
The FIRE economy would squeeze out the industrial economy
It turned out he was right
Warren Buffett is a FIRE type
A Tesla cost three times a BYD car with similar quality and features
And actually we don’t even need electric cars to live in any case
Humans are not omniscient. Because of the limits of human knowledge there are problems that are incapable of a market, technological or governmental fix. Because of the imperfect
state of human knowledge, I think the best way to solve problems is through a policy of laissez faire. A policy of laissez faire will not create a Land of Cockaigne or heaven on earth. I would make the much more modest claim that a policy of laissez faire, again given the limits of human knowledge, is the best way to solve problems that are amendable to a human solution.
@CHS - Thank you for your mediation on the centralization of power, and perpetuation of that centralization of power through propaganda. We all urgently need to break out of the propaganda's spell, and start creating our own local sustainable solutions.
To assume that the government is a solution to anything is insane history proves it. Free markets are better and then we need to protect ourselves from bad ideas through non participation voting with our feet or our money. maybe??? j.t.
Homo sapiens is successful because it has a large brain that adapts to current conditions. Look at all the climates where humans are successful. From the Inuit at the North Pole to the tribes in the Amazon to the Nepalese and Tibetans in the Himalayas to the Arabs in the desert.
All of it, the tech, the markets, and the state, could disappear tomorrow, and humans would adapt. Aliens could invade, and humans would adapt.
"What, me worry?" Alfred E. Neumann