Thoughts Aloud

Today, I venture to opine on a subject this has been over opined about by people far more qualified to offer opinions than yours truly.

Still, I will offer my own opinions with the hope that my use of simplification and common language might be more palatable than that typically used by the over educated.

In theory, a Free Market, operated in an environment of laissez-faire, is the best, most reliable and most equitable economic model available. So, how could such a system possibly fail? IMHO, partly due to its own accumulated success.

What could I possibly mean by such a silly statement? How can accumulated success lead to systematic failure? Simple, it does so when the economic model (the Free Market) attempts to operate in a vacuum. Said differently, when the economic model operates as if it alone is responsible for long term societal prosperity.

Secondly, this socioeconomic model fails when it is overburdened from without.

Thirdly, a state of “general prosperity” is anathema to those among us who, seemingly unable to control themselves, seek to control everyone else instead.

Still sounds a bit silly, does it not? Not to me.

In the case of the United States of America, a mostly free market economy (what I see as a “free enough” market economy) took a fledgling nation from a condition of national non-entity to super-power status so quickly that it gave us all a mild form of collective whiplash. It also gave us a level of general prosperity never before seen in the world and, by many, thought to be impossible to attain.

Then, almost suddenly, it all seems to be unraveling at the seams.

I have suggested 3 basic reasons for this:

→ Accumulated success
→ Overburdening from without
→ The desire to control acerbated by unbounded greed

Let us now discuss these individually, in simple terms and using common sense language:

ACCUMULATED SUCCESS

In the beginning of America, when economic freedom still seemed somewhat a novelty, people literally swarmed to America for the opportunity to participate. And, it worked. Oh, how it worked. But, to a large extent, we have allowed our free market to operate in somewhat of a vacuum, and this tendency accelerated over time. Of course, the situation was not helped by the intrusion of a political theory that does not trust individual people to make, and prosper from, their own decisions.

So, we let the “free enough” market chug along but without educating our heirs on how and why it worked so well – and on what their individual roles MUST be if the situation is to continue.

As a very natural result, after very few generation of this lack of economic education and their duties to the social contract, our heirs began to think of the benefits of our socioeconomic system as an “entitlement” rather than an “opportunity”.

That is, merely being American (or even merely being IN America) is now thought by many to be enough. Prosperity is somehow owed to you. This “economy thing” is like the goose that laid the golden eggs – it just does it. No mind how and when the goose gets fed or cared for, just collect the eggs and they will keep coming. Sure they will.

So, our once unstoppable economic engine starts to sputter so what do we do? Why, we do the only thing naturally to be done, we seek to slay the obvious enemy. However, since most of us never followed “Pogo the Possum” we failed to learn from him that “the enemy is us”.

OVERBURDENING FROM WITHOUT

All economic systems (or “models” if you prefer) are limited by certain hard realities. One is that there are never sufficient resources available to provide everyone with everything they could ever possibly want or need. Second is the fact that everything we want or need is the result of applied effort on the part of many individuals. The net amount of goods and services available is strictly limited by the number of individuals willing and able to apply the effort required to produce them.

Thus, when the number of consumers placing demands on a socioeconomic system exceeds the ability the producers of the goods and services demanded, the system will become “overburdened from without”. That is to say, overburdened by would-be consumers outside the system placing demands on the consumers and producers inside the system.

Clearly, the welfare state that America has become is drastically overburdening our socioeconomic system. The only workable solutions are that these outside consumers must be moved inside the system, or, alternately, that they must simply “go away”. Of course, if we continue on our current path and let the “goose” die from neglect, most of the consumers both inside and outside the system will automatically “go away”.

THE DESIRE TO CONTROL

Sadly, the human race has, in general, not yet started to evolve away from the seemingly overwhelming urge to control others (and seldom to control ourselves).

Even more sadly, all good tyrants know that a downtrodden populace is easier to control than a prosperous populace. When people prosper, they feel more confident with themselves (and with the system) and, as one side effect, they want to make their own decisions and to live their lives as they individually see fit.

Many of us see this as a highly desirable outcome.

Those obsessed with the desire to control others do not see it this way. They know that when sufficient numbers of people are reduced to dire straits, they lose self-confidence and become “suckers” for anyone who can convince them that they will take care of them and relieve them from their problems. Said differently, they willingly cede control of their individual lives over cheats, liars and politicians (yes, so I am redundant) who care only about themselves and see the befuddled masses only a a lever to further tilt the situation in their own favor.

This is such a sad comment on the human condition, even in America, that I am almost ashamed to make it. Only, all evidence suggests it is true.

For this simple reason, general prosperity becomes a threat to the most powerful within the socioeconomic system who actually seek to destroy it.

As an aside, in addition to those who are obsessed with the desire to control are those who are obsessively greedy. While their motivations may be a bit different from the “controllers”, their damage to the socioeconomic system is pretty much the same.

IN CONCLUSION

While I have attempted to summarize one of our major ills in language that even a fool can understand, I have no thought that anyone needing the lesson will take any of this to heart. Still, writing such things helps me clear my own mind, vent some of my own frustration, and it is the sort of thing I tell my own children and grandchildren (and a few tolerant friends) whenever I think they might be inclined to listen.

In addition, I am sick of talking, reading and hearing about politics concerning an election that will almost certainly be decided by fraud — or worse.

BTW – in the fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs, which I have several times alluded to, the keepers of the goose did not allow it to die of neglect. Instead, they killed, cooked and ate it. At least they got a good meal on their way down – just as we afford felons convicted of capital crimes to enjoy a last good meal before sending them on that well deserved trip into oblivion.

Think about it.

Troy L Robinson

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