Economics
-
Safety in Complexity?
As has been seen, any group we choose to call the "middle class" is so large as to be of little analytical help. Nor do the huge majority who are not rich qualify as a class. Moreover, there remains a very well-paid tier of corporate executives between them and the truly rich. Yet, along with
-
Coffee and Sugar
Why do some societies stagnate and others develop? It has a lot to do with the level to which elites dominate the system. And elites dominate the system because the basic economic infrastructure allows them to. Let me draw an analogy from what has been traditionally described as the difference between progressive crops like coffee
-
Economics and Politics
I’ve always been somewhat awestruck by the stupefying inhumanity of economists who see the global economy as this perfect system in which the abstract homo economicus, as if such a being existed in flesh and blood, rationally pursues what is in his economic best interest. And how different nations do the same thing in a
-
The American Dream
America’s imagination of itself is rather inflated with an ungrounded sense of its superiority. One of the great myths of our time is that ours is a land of unique opportunity, that the American Dream is what makes living in the U.S. an amazing experience to be found nowhwere else. That was more true a
-
Why Dubai Ports Rankles
From David Sirota: Underneath the glut of stories about the now-failed proposal by a Dubai-owned company to buy major American ports was something that every 2008 Democratic presidential candidate would be well-advised to note. No, it wasn’t a new resurgence of “racism,” as many pundits in the corporate media claimed. After all, there was plenty
-
The Economy and the Beltway Courtiers
In case you haven't noticed, the economy is booming, but for whom is the boom booming? This from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting: As the New York Times put it (12/6/05), the economy “has improved in the past two years, though polls show that most people think it has gotten worse.” USA Today (12/5/05) had
-
Vanishing Middle
Under the current regime, we are regressing to 1929. Believe that this a conscious strategy goal of key factions within the GOP. And we are allowing it because of the traditional values smokescreen that the architects of this plan are hiding behind. This from Tom Paine: The share of national income going to wages and
-
How Much Economic Freedom?
Forestwalker asks: "can you articulate how what you're advocating here in regard to the political and social/spiritual sphere is different than what libertarians advocate in regard to the economic sphere?" I think the question relates more to my 2/20 Religion and Politics post more than to Subjects and Objects post where it appeared as a
-
Shoring up the Radical Center
We're living in a transitional era on almost every level–economic, political, local, global, cultural, spiritual, and there are hundreds of analyses and critiques and programs for what must be done, but so long as no consensus emerges, a minority of economic elites with power is left unconstrained to game the system as they please. Our