Fun polemics ('anti-economics')
Kirby Urner
AND NOW, FROM THE DIATRIBES DEPARTMENT...
by Kirby Urner
Oct 22, 1996 [1]
Re: "Vote for Nader is mistake for Progressives" (sort of)
Ken Thomas, retired educator, journalist, writes in the
Oregonian (Oct 21, Reader Forum, B7) as a 'progressive'
preaching to his choir about why a vote for Nader is a bad
move. Dole will finish selling off our public sector to the
private sector, he intones, while a Clinton administration will
at least buy progressives some more time to think about what to
do next (he's a little slow, Clinton, so maybe the corporate
takeover won't be quite as blindingly fast if he stays on the
job, I guess is the argument).
Dawn and I attended Nader's speech at Benson High the other
night. For the most part, this was not a political speech at
all, but a fairly engaging lecture on 'interfacing' between
corporations and youth. His basic thesis is mom and dad both
have to work now, so the kids are home alone with the mass
media, which is staffed by highly trained manipulators who know
how the kids think. By the time mom and dad come home, junior
is one of "them", stalking around the house humming commercial
jingles, reciting cartoon-fed mantras, and nagging mom and dad
for consumer goods i.e. behaving like a well-programmed 'Toys R
Us kid' [tm]. At the appropriate legal age, he or she will
light up a cig, kick back with a beer, and watch some more
commercial advertising (leading to cars, a home mortgage, maybe
a few investments, hospital care, and, if all goes as planned,
an expensive funeral).
Obviously, a guy with a rap like this isn't going to make it to
the Oval Office, we all know that. But if it's really just a
matter of time with Clinton/Dole (Clinton being a little
slower) then I can understand why some progressives maybe have
this perverse death wish desire to face their enemy head on.
Like, take over already, just get it over with. "Clinton/Dole
makes me Ralph" goes one bumper sticker [2]. Sounds like some
people are feeling physically ill around this election. "With
the kids already behaving like media-zapped zombies, what more
have we got to lose?" may be a driving factor.
But TV isn't where the mass media programming begins and ends.
My teenager, Alexia, is floundering in Economics so, while she
and her friend Sarah studied their ecosystem out on Marine
Drive yesterday (an ongoing school project), I went to Pietro's
Pizza at the Jantzen Beach Mall (brand new digs), ordered wine
and salad bar, and started to plough through her text book.
This is what they use at Grant High School and no doubt
elsewhere around the state and nation (she took it to school
this morning, so I'm leaving out the author/title -- an
exercise for the interested reader).
First, we talk about global warming. That hooks 'em right away
-- this book cares. Then we move on to the Peace Dividend.
Somehow, the peace dove is sporting little missiles with red
and blue stripes in its wings, not just feathers. That never
gets explained directly, although one sentence mentions we
might not really have such a big dividend after all because of
the Middle East situation, oh well. Then it's on to beef and
cigarettes.
Cigs are addictive and really bad for you, we all know that
(the Surgeon General tells us so -- the kind of thing
governments do in market economies: nag us a bit, check our
beef for diseases, and teach us to be proud of our heritage),
but the smoker really gets a lot of 'utils' (utility units)
from smoking that really satisfying first cig of the day.
Better not to spend your bottom dollar on cigs though -- not so
many 'utils' after the first coupla packs. Better choose
wisely, as a 'sovereign consumer', about how many packs to
smoke.
Then comes the commercial farm, with 'hen depreciation'. Those
egg-layers wear out and have to be replaced, along with the
rest of the machinery (lots of "it's a cruel world so grow up"
messages embedded amidst the more light hearted professorial
patter -- Economics is about getting boys ready for manhood
(and a few girls, if they can stop crying so dang much)). And
then comes text about all those fatty animals bound for
McDonalds (no, I mean the cattle). And in Russia, we read,
those poor slobs didn't know they could stand in whatever line
was shortest (!) -- they all lined up behind cash register
number one, as they'd been trained to do by the old Marxist
central planners. And when they got their burger (identical in
every detail to the USA version, thanks to specialization and
the Hamburgerology Degree) they nearly burst into tears because
the service person behind the counter says "Have a Nice Day"
[sm] or "We Do It All for You" [sm] or something. Poor
Russians, no one has ever been nice to them before, it sounds
like.
India, now, is a primitive 'traditional' economy with lots of
weird religious beliefs. Like they don't even eat beef over
there much, even though lots of 'em are at death's door. And
they have this bizarre kind of social stratification, left over
from some 'casting' system that keeps lots of people out of
some of the best jobs. Gosh, good thing we have tobacco and
beef and live in America where the religion ain't so primitive!
USA-style racism is brought up later, and even classism a
little, amidst the usual rap -- like, racism sucks -- but with
no mention about how genetics and ethnography aren't even in
the same ball park, leaving the scientifically bankrupt 'race'
concept struggling for air (kinda like the concept of 'capital'
in this brain dead whiteman's book).
Then we talk about trademarks and trademarking. Picture of a
steam roller crushing computer clones in Taiwan. USA trade
officials are clamping down on those nasty cloners, because all
that advertising makes people salivate just for certain brands,
and others may have identical goods, but not such expensive
advertising so its just not fair that they get to cash in on
our expensive hype.
Now I fully understand my firm's right to use its own decals,
to build image, and to not tolerate cheap imitators, but then
the book throws digital media copying into the same soup,
suggesting that the bits and bytes on disk B are somehow
'counterfeit versions' of what's on disk A. Now *there's* a
little sleight of hand for ya.
I wonder if the electrons in my computer know if they're legal
electrons or phony ones. I'm sure one of these highly trained
lawyers could tell me (if not them). And what about the
time-honored institution we call the Library, a core
institution at the heart of our freedom to cooperatively create
our democracy? What's going to happen to 'borrow and return'
when all you have to do is clone a copy and never give it back
(because the library still has what it needs to lend to the
next person online)? It's the miracle of the loaves and
fishes, this electronic library service (all good Christians
should be pleased). No, no, that's all just more illegal
piracy talk, sounds downright Communist in fact, so shut up and
turn the page (no, the book doesn't explicitly say this -- it
just keeps silent on the whole non-issue).
Another tricky move is making the 'normal rate of return' for
an enterprise not really 'profit' at all. Like, we're entitled
to X percent return over investments, because that's what we'd
get if we put the same money in government bonds or something.
So a lot of this 'profit' is really just the capital gains
we're entitled to, for having dared to do something besides
buying into a mutual fund. 'Profit' is income over and above
even this guaranteed risk-free percentage. That seemed like a
subtle change in the rules to me, but then it's been a long
time since I studied any economics at Princeton or its Woodrow
Wilson School of Public Affairs.
That's about all I had time for during two trips to the salad
bar. Went back to get the students. Driving home, I wasn't
shy about sharing my distaste for this subtle media
programming. Most insidious of all was how the word 'capital'
bounced around, first meaning empty money, just a symbol of
value, then meaning the kind of good we all need to tighten our
belts for, so the capital-owners can borrow to buy it. Even if
its higher living standards for our families we were looking
forward to, given the Peace Dividend (whatever little is left
of it), to think that way is to not be attuned to the big
picture, wherein your patriotic duty is to sacrifice for a
strong military today, so we can finish making the whole world
in our image tomorrow. Remember the dove of peace, with the
missiles in its wings. Oh yeah, I get it now.
So what's a computer used to provide a home schooler with high
quality digital assets? Do you call that a 'consumer good' or
a 'capital good'? When the insurance company buys another
mainframe, it's definitely a 'capital good'. Now what if we
then use our home school computer to clone our own personal,
customizable copies of digital assets, downloading via the
internet from a vast global library containing our shared and
growing metaphysical, multi-cultural heritage as human beings.
No, that wouldn't be a dealing in 'goods' at all, let alone
'capital goods'. That'd be downright bad behavior dammit (all
we economists know or care about is 'revenue from sales' and
the thought of wildly proliferating, freely available digital
assets zipping around the globe makes us feel a bit ill).
Oh, I almost forgot, the book also tells us that 'households'
lend their capital to the 'factor markets', and get interest in
return (little looping picture of how it all goes around and
around, minus any mention of the Sun and its one-way
interest-free continuous energy investing in our ecosystem).
Like really, how many 'households' are living off interest in
the USA? According to this picture, 'labor' doesn't come from
those households but from the factor markets that 'capital'
supports and gets interest off. Sounds like those 'household'
people don't need to work for a living at all. And what's
'thinking real hard,' is that 'labor' or 'capital'? And who
does any 'thinking' or 'planning' in this picture, anyway,
given that 'centralized command economies' are evil and we need
to let the free market work out all the equilibria in a
mindless kind of way (well, centralized military planning for
war is OK since that's about making the world safe for free
markets -- but that's the only kind of big picture planning a
free people will tolerate (or not -- we get your taxes either
way)).
Like, really, thinking and planning is for the birds or, as
Nader put it "if it bleeds, it leads, but if it thinks, it
stinks" -- a little rule of thumb for coming up with media
programming you know the corporate advertisers will want to buy
from you, the media producer, as a mass market vehicle for
their products.
So how are we going to train the Russians to stop thinking and
planning, after so many years of trying to do just that? Well,
it'll be tough (for them), but maybe after a few cigs and
burgers they'll start to see the light. Really, it's easy!
Just kick back and let your capital investments go out there
and gain and gain like crazy, like so much beef cattle (damn
government rakes in too much of a percentage but we'll fix that
soon). Money makes money. Like magic! Ain't it just great?
Sure we've got poverty and hell-hole 'hoods. That's where
religion comes in and old fashioned Christmas charity. Those
athiest Russians will just have to learn about Christian family
values, so they can learn how to set up quaint little public
sector do gooder agencies, staffed by bleeding hearts and loud
mouthed activists we pay the police to keep civil (or its off
to jail with you, you commie fag (real men *died* for your
freedom you little ingrate (sorry, I'm not doing justice to
this book's tone, which is really quite liberal))).
Then we'll have peace on earth at last, with expensive funerals
for the Russians too -- or at least for those Russians who
learned to play the market and make it to easy street (hey, we
never promised you a rose garden).
So just what is this 'capital,' this magical thing that just
gains and gains, while we sit back and watch the little tickers
on our computer screens? The book is strangely confusing on
this subject. The meaning of 'capital' just floats around, not
wanting to be pinned down. The book hints that if you work hard
and go to college, you'll get to be one of those 'householders'
some day, living on easy street (compartively at least). But
maybe you're not college material (we use your ability to grasp
Economics as one way to separate you out). Well then, you can
join the teaming masses and take your chances in the factor
markets, selling what little you've got to offer (hey, maybe
you can drift into some serious acting jobs by plugging our
products on TV (smile brightly now!)).
We may not know what capital is, precisely, but labor, we all
know what that means. Labor is showing up for work and being a
good doobie, not thinking too much, learning to specialize
(like that surgeon in the book who also knows how to fix cars
-- the 'law of comparitive advantage' tells him to leave those
cars to the mechanic without the fancy college degree (like we
need the surgeon full time to bypass pieces of dead heart meat
killed off by all those cigs and burgers, thanks to all those
'utils' the consumers are getting)).
There's a part about how advertising and image marketing lead
to people buying a lot of expensive stuff just because they
want to appear wealthy (by whatever media standards). Does
this counter the 'utils' model (like is it really about
'satisfaction' and 'consumer sovereignty' if these are just
'Toys R Us zombies' who got a little bigger and can now buy
more expensive toys on credit?). Of course not. The
economists' 'util' model is air tight. 'Utils' are whatever
turns you on. Whatever you do, it's to get those 'utils'.
And if we didn't have scarcity, the book says very directly,
you'd wallow and waste and pig out like there's no tomorrow,
selfish creature that you are. The book forgets to mention
that we're all gonna die, that life is short, and that
'opportunity cost' is operative from day one. If you invest in
plan A, you're ripping yourself off vis-a-vis plan B. On your
death bed, you might wish you'd risked a little more, watched
TV a little less, and taken your eating habits a bit more
seriously.
Maybe, left to our own devices, even in an afterlife awash in
freely available 'consumer goods', we'd take some time away
from our videogames and barbie dolls to learn how to be all
that we can be, because we see the angels around us, and would
rather be like them than like grunting animals who salivate on
cue. But no, economists know we're all grunting animals at
heart, and the most fit survive are at the top of the heap in a
dog-eat-dog game of 'never enough for everyone, so let the
Russians starve'. Good thing there's scarcity then, and the
threat of dire poverty, to keep us from all trying to be pigs
at once (remember, we said 'equality of opportunity', not like
you all get to be as greedy as I am, once push comes to
shove). And if the current level of scarcity doesn't keep you
working hard enough, we'll create some more of it for you.
Capital is always in critically short supply for the rank and
file. You can bank on that as one of nature's cruel laws (like,
how else would we be able to charge so much in interest for
letting you borrow a little of our precious 'juice'?).[3]
OK, so that's a long shot of me 'ralphing' about an Economics
text book. Clearly not a political speech, clearly not about
paving my way to the Oval Office where I can be a good doobie
and not think too much (we keep those presidents too busy to
have much of a clue -- Bob maybe thinks too much these days but
that's because he's unemployed; we'll take care of that once
we've got him behind a desk again -- he's been easy to work
with in the past).
So where I do stand? My personal platform is USA OS
(OS=operating system), experiments in participatory democracy
that draw elsewhere for inspiration than from economists and
their sorry 'dismal science'. Our general systems theory knows
that good theater isn't about just having a lot of expensive,
under-utilized props lying around, while the actors work on
getting 'spoiled brat' down pat. We know the Russians too have
fine acting skills and ways to tap the biosphere for energy
(solar fusion drives the show) so they don't really need to
learn how to say "Have a Nice Day" [sm] with a smile, as they
kneel to the Hamburger Gods who made America Great (talk about
beef worship -- the only difference from India is we like 'em
dead).
We're not talking Communism here, but age-old Capitalism, which
means using your own head, risking being your own brand of fool
on stage, but knowing there's more to life than pigging out on
candified sex and violence the whole live long day. Using your
own head means not waiting for the President of the United
States to use hers (or his), not waiting to see how 'the
election' comes out. Life's too short to waste on such
made-for-TV trauma and drama. We've got a biosphere to manage
and little time for all those clueless newbies in Washington DC
to get a grip.
"Clinton or Dole, we stay in control" is my bumper sticker of
choice (invisible -- I don't need to advertise). When it comes
to media manipulation and talking to your kids, letting them
know that humanity really does have a chance to make it, big
time, and that they have a starring role to play in this new
big picture game, my 4D Solutions, a private enterprise, is
skillful and professional -- second to none I like to think
(but I'm always learning otherwise).
No, those economists and psychology-savvy market researchers
haven't got a prayer of outfoxing me and my friends in the
message-making media department -- and they're welcome to join
our gig, once they figure out some of the quality subplots they
might want to star in. My media networkers are quite simply the
best in the business Plus lots of fun new props are waiting in
the wings. There won't be any shortage of interesting roles to
play, provided we remember that our primary audience is a
highly discerning and intelligent one.
Mom and dad will be glad, if surprised, when they come home to
find junior busily studying a world map on the monitor, looking
for all the nuclear waste dumps and arms bazaar merchant
headquarters. They may wonder if their bosses approve of this
newly consciousness-raising programming -- which is good,
because mom and dad need to start wondering about what the
bosses are thinking (maybe stay home from work and soak up some
of this intelligent new internet curriculum themselves, or
check it out on the web from the cubicle at work, while the
supervisor is busily doing something in some other cubicle).
And that's a good way to get to a big picture viewpoint,
learning right along with junior. And the more people we have
with a ring side seat, the higher will be the quality of our
globally-based theater.[4]
For all this boning up on Economics on my part, my teenager may
still fail her Honors Economics class (e.g last night's
homework was pretty confusing), and Economics is required to
get a high school degree from Grant these days. But she'll know
her step dad is proud of her anyway, since there's a lot more
to life than a lot of dumb Economics courses.
----
Kirby is some local area wise guy who sounds off on occasion
but mostly keeps busy in the public sector via his private
enterprise, 4D Solutions, based right here locally in Portland,
Oregon, and globally accessible via the internet.
[1] Note: some slight improvements over the Oct 21 version,
already in circulation
[2] Note: for readers unfamiliar with American slang:
to 'to ralph' means 'to vomit' i.e. 'puke' 'barf'
[3] see 'New Circuit Designs for Motherboard Earth'
at http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/motherboard.html
for more on the banking's 'juice' concept.
[4] for more on GST, see
http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/gstuniv.html
----------------------------------------------------
Kirby Urner "All realities are virtual" -- KU
Email: pd...@teleport.com
Web: http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/
bill paton
I'm just reading (among many other things) E.F. Schumacher's SMALL IS
BEAUTIFUL. One of the primary ideas that struck me, and that goes along
with Bucky's notions that a master worker in India should make the same as
one in Detroit, was that the capital for starting a job to employ someone
should be equivalent to the wages of an average working person. Too much
and you alienate too many people, create unemployment which can lead to
social problems. A very interesting concept.
One of my other questions I throw around in my head is basically this:
What percentage(if it is possible to do this) is it worth to pay extra for
a locally produced product. In other words, if I can buy a locally made
shirt, how much more should I pay where the extra money will come back to
me--by the fellow citizen's paying taxes thus lowering mine, his expenses
of purchasing from others locally. Is it possible to determine this as a
figure, or economically. Am I "thinking globally, acting locally" or what.
I would be curious to see what anyone thinks about either of these notions.
Bill Paton
--
Bill Paton --Solutioneer
bpa...@inforamp.net
THE DIRECTOR'S TEMPLATE
http://www.inforamp.net/~bpaton
tom aagdii
hi Kirby,
i dont understand why you dont send this to the whole system N.G
do you think somthing like this, little refined more worked out could
be published in NewsWeek, Time, Fortune or other widly circulated M.
cheers tagdi,
p.s i was going through heavy difficulties (psychological) and still,
i dislike the digital stad, where my emil is stored. somthing rong
about it all the time. i find another p;ace called hotmail, yesterday
i sent subscribtion to synergetics. but i forgot, i think i have to
wait one hour for a replay, but the library was closing.
i try again
Patrick Salsbury
-Bill Paton
-One of my other questions I throw around in my head is basically this:
-What percentage(if it is possible to do this) is it worth to pay extra for
-a locally produced product. In other words, if I can buy a locally made
-shirt, how much more should I pay where the extra money will come back to
-me--by the fellow citizen's paying taxes thus lowering mine, his expenses
-of purchasing from others locally. Is it possible to determine this as a
-figure, or economically. Am I "thinking globally, acting locally" or what.
I was just thinking about that this weekend. I needed to gas up my
car, and decided to put the money into our local station, which doesn't seem
to be run by any major chain, rather than filling up at one of the mega-chains
over in Silicon Valley. (I live in a small town in the mountains.)
It may have cost me $.10/gallon more, but that was still only about a
dollar for the whole tank. And I got to talk with one of the kids working
there for several minutes. (Very sharp guy, actually.)
All-in-all, I think it was worth the dollar. Can't get very much more
economically precise in this incident, but I agree with the idea of bringing
money INTO communities, rather than sending it out by way of the super-chains.
--
Pat
_____________________________Think For Yourself______________________________
Patrick G. Salsbury <sals...@sculptors.com>
http://www.sculptors.com/~salsbury/
-----------------------
Don't break the Law...fix it. ;^)