Real World Economics 1.0

           We need to clear something up. Conservatives say that the economy can’t thrive without capitalists willing and able to risk money to produce goods, and employ workers. Meanwhile, liberals say that the economy is driven by consumer demand that employs capitalists. The tax implications of each of these apparently opposite belief systems are significant.

One side wants to eliminate taxes on capitalists, eliminate regulations that burden them, and eliminate minimum wages that they say keep them from hiring some people. Further, they want assistance programs ended because they counter- productively support people who would otherwise be energized to accept lower paid work or to accept work that safety net programs make economically unfeasible. The absence of these programs would also energize people to take care of them selves by saving for contingencies. They believe the government can neither afford to support needy people nor make good on its annuity commitments or deposit guarantees, and they want to sell off or privatize government assets.

The other side wants safety net programs protected and expanded by raising taxes on the rich—the oligarchs who they believe just want to further line their pockets at the expense of working people. They believe corporations and the very rich are not paying their share of taxes, and that consumers, not capitalists, make the economy thrive. They hold that government is employer of last resort and Keynesian economic leveler in times of turmoil.

As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between. Capitalists need consumers who can afford to spend, and consumers need employment that allows them to both live decently and save. Congress has screwed things up so badly that the government needs consumers to spend, not save, and it needs capitalists to keep giving Congress money so they can campaign to maintain power.

The rub these days is that very few people earning the national minimum wage can afford to both live and save for contingencies. In reality, minimum wage jobs are mostly home to adults who need to support a family, not mewling and puking babies who just need a foot in the door. If you’re a displaced coal miner, and all you can find is work that pays $7.25 an hour, you can’t keep six kids in doctors, shoes, shelter, school and gruel, and save. The reality is that CEO’s, financiers, and fat legislators who make top incomes every year have no standing to call for elimination of safety nets and scrapping minimum wages. The reality is that people who think the country can provide a wish list full of benefits by just taxing the rich are relying on murky math and childish selfishness, not egalitarian principles.

Around here, we have one magic answer: if you think one side or the other is entirely correct, you are entirely wrong. Congress is the lab-rat experiment that proves “either / or” produces only damaging gridlock and obstruction.

Early House Recess, (or The Ryan Boogie)

           It’s sad that US House of Representatives minority politicians think they must resort to a sit-in to be heard. It is sad that majority politicians folded their tents and left (early). Guess they just didn’t want to hear about it. This is the logical conclusion of bull headed obstructionism. Tax payers pay Congress a great deal of money, and all they can manage on gun legislation is “thoughts and prayers.”

           Lewis wanted votes on gun legislation. That sent a shiver scurrying along the majority benches looking for a spine to run up. They were nowhere to be found. They couldn’t stay and be counted. Lewis is right—his position is being farted off. Ryan is right—it’s against House rules to take this vote. 

          So what happens, Ryan, if you temporarily suspend the rules to deal with a genuine constituent concern such as gun legislation? Does someone suddenly appear and rap your knuckles with a ruler?

           Right. So let’s not try to BS anybody that this is anything but political street fighting. And when it comes to bull headed obstruction, most Americans know who has been carrying that ball for several years. You can say you did your job and went home, but really you just went home. You boogied!

           Around here, we’d like to see the majority party do a little less of the Ryan Boogie and a little more of the peoples' business. We’ve been waiting, while obstructionists praise themselves for personal courage and see that nothing gets done.

Thinking In Different Frames Of Reference

          When a situation requires your action, think carefully. Don’t just do what’s expected! Consider your approach by applying the 5 “W’s” and the “H” observed by every competent journalist: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

           If action is needed, who should do it? You may be expected to, but who, really, is best able to take the action needed? Do you need to delegate, or get assistance, or arrange for witnesses?

           What is the essential outcome? Others will always ‘know’ what you should do, but what do you want to accomplish, or have accomplished for you, and what is the best way to get there? What do YOU think needs to be done?

           When should it be done, for best results? Very often, the answer is NOW. But not always. What are the needs of everyone involved? Keep your objective in sight.

           Where should the deal go down? Your territory or their space? Public or private? What perception do you want to create for principals or observers?

           Why is the action you’ve chosen the best way to get to your objective? Why is it thoughtful and not just a destructive knee-jerk.

           How do you preserve everyone’s dignity as much as possible, honor the people involved, avoid others’ mistakes or obstacles, and achieve the goal that YOU set, to protect the interests of your family, associates, country, employment, or beliefs?

           Around here, whether you’re being proactive or reactive, these are the starting points for thinking in different frames of reference.

Hood Robin And The Bigots

          For scores of years, some Americans have cloaked bigotry and racism with polite “code phrases” that shield their users from disdain. Phrases like, “urban problem” which relates to African Americans; “family values” which places some racial groups, who can’t afford to live in families, opposite poor whites, who can’t afford not to, let alone affluent people who may choose family life; and “immigration problem” which means Asians and Hispanics and dark skinned others, who have, or might take desirable jobs.

           Then the 2016 Presidential campaign comes, and with it a street-wise scrapper who foregoes the niceties of polite discourse. He calls Mexicans criminals and rapists, proposes deporting millions of people, deplores Black Lives Matter, supports violence against protesters, and shows crass disrespect for women. America’s bigots respond enthusiastically. To the international embarrassment of America, they avidly support his snot-nosed petulance, and lack of substance.

           He is the logical conclusion of the greed, privilege, obstinacy, and stupidity of exclusive VS. inclusive thinking. And his nearest competitor is even worse. While he and his ilk want to divide Americans because of economic difficulty, America’s real economic issues go begging. Like, why are there too few jobs, why is our infrastructure crumbling, why is the government short of money, and why isn’t congress addressing America’s needs?

           Around here, we think people need to ignore the manipulators and get busy supporting what has and will continue to make America great. Community, diversity, immigration, and innovation. And certainly not the “reverse Robin Hood” tax concepts of demagogues.

It’s A Billionaire Thing

            A good friend predicted back in the 80’s that globalization would take a heavy toll on America’s economy.  Another said that multinational corporations would become bigger than governments. 

            Submitted for your approval: America has lost some 7 million jobs due to multinational corporations and others shipping the work we used to do to places where labor is cheaper.  If you do not approve, we may have some ideas in common.

            I’d like to buy a shirt made in USA of domestic cloth.  I’d like to go to the Big Box hardware and buy a tool not made overseas, but in America.  I’d like to go to the Bed & Stuff store and buy quality dinner table flatware made in, you guessed it, made here!  Domestic shoes, anyone? 

            Billionaires have something in common.  They all seem to be in favor of things that enable them to make more money.  Whether it’s the TPP, offshore tax havens, corporate inversions, reducing domestic taxes even though schools and bridges etc suffer (can you say ‘Kansas’, boys and girls?), or making sure the penalties for wrong doing at their level are rarely and mildly punished.  To paraphrase Willard Motley, knock on any billionaire’s door.

            Around here, we think this is what makes most ordinary Americans angry, in spite of efforts to get us all worked up about immigrants and people of color stealing our precious prosperity.  Why, then, we wonder, do so many struggling voters want to vote for billionaires?  Does that make ANY sense?  

Selling Jimmy

          So Jimmy! I got this guy, ya know? Need a box of watches? He’s your man, and every one has that little “hood ornament” on the dial the customers want. He makes the best deal! Guaranteed! You need a set of wheels? You can’t do better than him! He knows where they’re at, and he can bring ‘em in. We’re talkin’ dimes on the dollar! I’m tellin’ ya, he drives around in limousines! With showfers!

And money? He buys buildings like me and you buy popsicles! I mean this guy’s made a fortune in buildings alone. Companies too! He’s a guy with a lifestyle, ya know? They wanna eliminate one hundred dollar bills? He’s got to find a new way to light his fireplace! Lap of luxury, Jimmy, that’s it.

All the big guns wanna be his pal, and he don’t skimp with it. If he wants something, he’ll make you a deal. He’s got a plane bigger’n your house, and a boat too, probably. I ain’t never seen it though. Now Jimmy, he ain’t no saint. He’s known to enhance shall we say, the truth, if it gets the project down the road. Ya know? But he’s a doer! You wanna buy a company? He’ll build one for you. You wanna start a business? He’ll ride it up with you.

This guy’s aces Jimmy. He don’t fool around. He needs what he gets and he gets what he needs, is what I’m sayin. A person could do worse for a pal. He axed me to talk to you. T’ing is Jimmy, he wants to marry your daughter. Jimmy! Jimmy! Where ya goin?!!!

The Government We Deserve

          The maxim is that voting gets us the government we deserve. The polarization and gridlock keeping congress unproductive on the big issues that matter to most people, is a function of the inability to overcome a predilection for clinging to ‘our positions’ to the exclusion of all others. That predilection is what helped produce eight years of notoriously disrespectful, bull-headed obstruction in the last few congresses. That, and fear are keeping the egregious waste of legislative energy going in the present congress. America’s psycho extremists are still at work fanning fear, anger, misogyny, racism and hatred.

           Meanwhile, those people pouring billions of dollars into influencing our hapless legislators are getting exactly what they want. No reduction in pharmaceutical prices, no action to drastically reduce humanity’s carbon footprint, no action on controlling the huge institutions that gave us the Great Recession, no tax or immigration reform, no national minimum wage, continuing attacks on safety net programs, attacks on improving America’s healthcare system, attacks, attacks, attacks, delivered with partisan smiles. 

          Hardly a day goes by without someone petitioning congress to not do stupid, wasteful, discriminatory, or destructive things. Hardly another goes by without some candidate promoting stupid, wasteful, discriminatory, or destructive things.

           Around here, we’re wondering, “Where are the jobs? The ‘job creators’ now have most of the money. Why do we still have 50% unemployment in some minority communities? If you can’t recognize that demand, not the kindness of strangers, creates jobs, you probably really do deserve the government we have.