Well, I'm back to blogging at MySpace. Because, quite simply, I have a lot of readers over there who have been reading my stuff for a long time. I'm not sure where they come from. But they go there to find it. I know this by reading the stats. If you want to check out my blog on MySpace, you just need to google David Vidal. The link to my website will pop up. Go there. At the bottom of the page is a link to MySpace. Click it. That will take you to my MySpace site. You can easily navigate that to find the latest blog, or the old ones, for that matter. You don't have to log onto MySpace to do this. You can also check out music, pictures, etc. You know the drill. It's freakin' MySpace. But you only have to log on in order to leave a comment.
Having said that... I like this spot too. It's a little more academic somehow. So, I'll probably leave the occasional literary droppings over here as well. (Excuse me... I have dogs and cats.)
I looked up economic theory today. On Wikipedia and maybe one other place. Because honestly I never studied it. And I like Paul Krugman, the writer at the New York Times. I like the way he thinks, and he's a good writer. And I kinda wanted to know more about what he's talking about. Because I know economic theory is just that... theory.
You probably know all this, but allow me to break down what I gleaned out of my perusing. You have Keynesian theory on the one hand, which is a belief that government manipulation of markets (interest rates, money flow and so on) is a good thing. On the other hand you have supply side economics (a theory that was apparently first named during the Nixon years) in which the basic premise is that markets will regulate themselves, and the best governance of them is no governance at all.
And it dawned on me (again, please humor me if this is old hat to you) that the difference between Democrats (who are essentially Keynesian) and Republicans (who are basically supply siders) all boils down to the conflict between these two economic theories. Everything else is just steam that rises into the air and dissipates. Hot air.
What we have in our actual economic system is a combination of the two theories. Were we to be totally Keynesian, we'd be socialist. The government would manipulate the market from top to bottom. Were we to be totally supply side, there would be no economic regulation at all.
The problem that our economy is going through now is that this amalgam of economic theories doesn't seem to be working. People who think in fundamentally Keynesian terms (I'm one of them... who knew) think that representative government in control of economic machinery is the best way to go. And supply siders (who in my world view have screwed things up since the days of Reagan) think the opposite.
What we have is a kind of wobbling back and forth between the two. Either one might work... but the combination of them probably doesn't.
Then it occurred to me... what if they're both wrong? I mean, in reality, most of us use something more akin to the Lord's Prayer in our personal economic policies. We're thankful for a roof over our head if we're fortunate enough to have one, and food on the table, if there is some. And we hope that tomorrow we will have those things still. Or get them.
Seems to me the entire monetary system has been about economic slavery from day one. It wasn't imposed for the betterment of humanity. Humanity might have gotten betterment from it, but that wasn't the driving force behind it. The driving force was (and is) for the people who control the coinage (antiquated term I know... there used to be actual coins involved in this deal, made of gold and silver 'n' stuff) to control the people who didn't. That simple. And people were forced, often under penalty of death, to use that coinage. Otherwise, the powers that be would ride into your village and lop your head off.
So all of economic theory (or at least a good part of it) is designed to keep control of the populace, and gain control over more people on the planet (growth economics). The Keynesian model believes that through manipulation of the markets, the serfs (you and me) will be kept happier and consume, consume, work, work. The supply side doesn't even pretend to give a rat's ass about the serfs, and goes by the old philosophy of just lopping their heads off if they doth protest too much. By that theory, the rich should get continually richer, and the poor... well, who cares, really.
The Keynesians don't really care much about the poor either... they just feel they're more easily controlled if they're relatively happy.
Now we find ourselves in the digital age... and everything is turned topsy turvy. Because coinage is now nothing more than digits. And trading of digits is based on speculation based on projection of ideas. And so on.
These things are couched in fancy schmancy economic speak by economists... but really, they don't know what to do.
And, actually, we don't either. But I think we're used to that, many of us. Or getting that way. Because, at the end of the day, if we have food on the table and a roof over our heads, we're still thankful. And if we don't, or somebody we know doesn't, or even somebody we don't know... we try to help them, and they us. Because most of us aren't out to control anybody.
What a concept.
I'm reminded of the old Chinese curse... "may you live in interesting times".
