Libertarians, help me out here...

[XJ Dreamin']

I am afraid I must reserve comment on your economic plan for a time after I get some sleep. I've let the time get much too late as it is.

Later.

Well, I've had time to sleep, but I doubt it did me much good.

I don't know that I can tie the changes in the monetary system to the degradation of the social contract, but certainly economy is an element of the social order.

One thing that I see as a problem is that the relationship between 'making money' and politics has become much more overt on the national level. Certainly, making money and politics has always been related. What began at the chiefdom level of social order as centralization of resources for the purposes of redistribution was too easily perverted into centralization for personal gain. And, of course, big money influencing policy in American government is nothing new.

However, this trend to view the health of the stock market as an indicator of the nation's economic health is something I don't understand. Every time a news show says that it's time to talk national economics they end up talking to a market analyst who is going ga-ga over the latest merger or latest round of lay-offs (both, apparently, good things for the economy :wierd: ). Why don't we do something about the trade deficit with China? I suspect that those in the know might actually be invested in the Chinese companies sucking up all of our money. Why else would you promote the Chinese economy and say it was good for our economy? I can't figure out any other reason. Something similar came up during Regan's administration. Japanese companies were accused of predatory practices, dumping on the US market. Regan declined to address the issue. My thought at the time was, "Hmm...I wonder how many of Regan's friends are invested in those Japanese companies?" It just seems to me that there is a maniacal fixation on the health of the Dow and a rather drastic disregard for the health of the US economy.

That's a bit too conspiracy minded, even for me Still, I just have not been able to comprehend why it is that those with the power to do something about it have such little regard for the health of our economy. The only thing I can figure is that they must be watching money flow somewhere else (like straight through Iraq? :gag: ). Anyway, 5-90, I hope your corrections will work, and I hope you get a chance to try it, 'cause my forecasts for the US economy are too bleak to be allowed out of their dingy little cell, way back at the back of my mind. I start thinking' about that and I curl up into fetal position and start suckin' my thumb.

 

[5-90]

It's too bad you're not closer. Perhaps, on my next road trip to Points Central, we should get all of us "deep thinkers" together and have a round table - anyone got a stenographer handy?

I'm not saying that my solution is the best one, nor am I even saying it will work. However, I keep looking at what we've been doing, and see that it isn't working - and we should try something else! Maybe I'm just suggesting what I am because it's almost diametrically opposed to what we've been doing so far, but it is certainly time to try something different.

I doubt I'll get a chance to put anything into motion - I make too damn much sense to get elected to anything important. I tend to say what's on my mind (whether it's what you want to hear or not...) and I don't have more letters after my last name than in it, so I'm obviously not "bright" enough for that rarefied circle (I'm just a guy who's had to live a lot of life, and I've got some ideas.)

Still, it makes an interesting thought experiment, and should be done. Probably be better than anything that comes out of the Cato Institute - a lot of those people are overeducated anyhow, and have forgotten how to observe and think.

Is what we're doing now the answer? No. Is what I'm thinking the answer? Likely it isn't. The answer is probably somewhere in between - but we'll probably only find out by touching both of the poles and finding bits we like from both sides...

5-90

 

[RedHeep]

Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. ... Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

Two quotes I came across recently that made me think. Ben arguing in front of the king in 1753 and Abe trying to keep a separating republic together.

 

[XJ Dreamin']

It's too bad you're not closer. Perhaps, on my next road trip to Points Central, we should get all of us "deep thinkers" together and have a round table - anyone got a stenographer handy?

I'm not saying that my solution is the best one, nor am I even saying it will work. However, I keep looking at what we've been doing, and see that it isn't working - and we should try something else! Maybe I'm just suggesting what I am because it's almost diametrically opposed to what we've been doing so far, but it is certainly time to try something different.

I doubt I'll get a chance to put anything into motion - I make too damn much sense to get elected to anything important. I tend to say what's on my mind (whether it's what you want to hear or not...) and I don't have more letters after my last name than in it, so I'm obviously not "bright" enough for that rarefied circle (I'm just a guy who's had to live a lot of life, and I've got some ideas.)

Still, it makes an interesting thought experiment, and should be done. Probably be better than anything that comes out of the Cato Institute - a lot of those people are overeducated anyhow, and have forgotten how to observe and think.

Is what we're doing now the answer? No. Is what I'm thinking the answer? Likely it isn't. The answer is probably somewhere in between - but we'll probably only find out by touching both of the poles and finding bits we like from both sides...

5-90

I fear that little will change for the better. I hope that I am wrong. I don't know what else to do but continue to live as if the future will be bright, but my 'highest confidence' projection is that at some time there will be a correction. In an ecological system such corrections are generally not very pretty. Projecting into the modern economic system, it would be problematic.

My best hope is that the whole mess is just so complicated and diversified that no single disaster can bring it down. A war here - massive trade imbalance there - piffle. The juggernaught will just keep on chugging along - as long as the Dow stays up