The Matrix describes a world where, in a war of machines against Man, the machines won. Humans are farmed, kept alive, brains stimulated by a computer-generated dream world to produce bio-electricity to power the machines. People turned into batteries. The Matrix did not describe an amorphous future; it is our present. We are batteries.
Simple economic texts describe the cycles of demand and supply, manufacture, purchase, employment, etc. Into this simple loop is inserted taxation and government, taxes siphoning off some money to provide services and therefore employment and economic activity itself. A larger insertion is trade, where some economic activity goes to another nation, and some comes back. When these cycles are unbalanced money or goods accumulates in one nation or another. That wealth gets expressed in investment- the savings rate, infrastructure, foreign purchases, scientific underwriting, etc.
Implicit in all these cycles is that something of value underpins the currency (specie of some sort) and that something valuable is made by and for the citizens. Otherwise the economy is just a Ponzi scheme of money for no product. Also implicit is that the citizens are served by the entire process; ie, that their needs for food, shelter, etc are fulfilled.
Across the last 60 years these cycles have become broken for the West in general. Just as democratic government fails when the People realize they can vote themselves monies from the public purse, corporations and government realized citizens know and care little about productivity and national wealth. They discovered as long as citizens (now named consumers) get goods and services they don't care where they came from. The US had huge wealth, and stereos from China and Japan were cheaper than from the US. So what if no Americans were employed making them? Who cared if our audio, video, TV, cell phones, and computer equipment were all made abroad? They were cheap and plentiful, and on an individual level Americans were doing great!
Free trade, open borders, cheap goods- as long as there is a happy, well-fed consumer beast how the goods got there was irrelevant. That Americans were unemployed, that American wages were stagnant, made no difference. The wealth that built bridges, highways and buildings was squandered in trade deficits, but so what? Both our mouths, the one on our face and the leather one in our pocket, were being fed constantly. Ruined roads meant ruined cars, which meant you bought another one! The truly wealthy, the political and corporate heads, had private aircraft, sent their children to private schools, and had nothing to do with the physical and human wreckage below them.
Our economic system, instead of serving the citizens, serves only those who own multi-national corporations, and those who manipulate public opinion- 'leaders' and 'journalists'. We are no longer the engine of the economy, we are the batteries that keep it alive, being sucked dry while imagining we are being served. We are being played. And that includes you, Mr. Professional, Ms. Big Suburban House, The Honorable I Have a Title. All of us are being played.
The corona pandemic is exposing this mess in a major way. We don't even make our own personal protective equipment! Covid-19 tests from China are defective in the millions. We don't make our own drugs! We don't make anything. Hell, with the restaurants closed a lot of people have found out we don't even make dinner. We are suddenly exposed for what we are- self-satisfied but weak, lacking facilities to take care of ourselves. We are no kind of world leader in anything but consumption.
There are major changes that ought to follow the pandemic, lockdown mess we've created for ourselves. Manufacturing needs to come back to the US. Prohibit importation of finished goods from any factory not conforming to US environmental and labor law. Require companies selling products in the US to make them here. The idea of a borderless world is ludicrous, and borders are suddenly very well enforced when threatened by disease. Make immigration mean something again. Prohibit transfer of money out of the US. No more siphoning off money to relatives elsewhere, or corporations sending it overseas to avoid taxes. Make healthcare universal. Stop the political infighting and do what everyone wants. Make the minimum wage 15.00 hourly. Absolutely no one can live on 7 bucks an hour and everyone knows it. All political contributions of labor unions and corporations should end. Workers have been screwed long enough. They need serious representation, not a leadership that represents featherbedding and political corruption. Likewise no politician should be listening to corporations who are paying their bills.
I hope too that Americans will look actively to buy American goods instead of foreign ones, and so also with corporations.
Those are to me the lessons of Corona virus. We have become fat and vulnerable through our own greed and gullibility. Please, no more. The deaths from Corona will have some meaning if they awaken us to end our weakness and dependency.
Ted
Simple economic texts describe the cycles of demand and supply, manufacture, purchase, employment, etc. Into this simple loop is inserted taxation and government, taxes siphoning off some money to provide services and therefore employment and economic activity itself. A larger insertion is trade, where some economic activity goes to another nation, and some comes back. When these cycles are unbalanced money or goods accumulates in one nation or another. That wealth gets expressed in investment- the savings rate, infrastructure, foreign purchases, scientific underwriting, etc.
Implicit in all these cycles is that something of value underpins the currency (specie of some sort) and that something valuable is made by and for the citizens. Otherwise the economy is just a Ponzi scheme of money for no product. Also implicit is that the citizens are served by the entire process; ie, that their needs for food, shelter, etc are fulfilled.
Across the last 60 years these cycles have become broken for the West in general. Just as democratic government fails when the People realize they can vote themselves monies from the public purse, corporations and government realized citizens know and care little about productivity and national wealth. They discovered as long as citizens (now named consumers) get goods and services they don't care where they came from. The US had huge wealth, and stereos from China and Japan were cheaper than from the US. So what if no Americans were employed making them? Who cared if our audio, video, TV, cell phones, and computer equipment were all made abroad? They were cheap and plentiful, and on an individual level Americans were doing great!
Free trade, open borders, cheap goods- as long as there is a happy, well-fed consumer beast how the goods got there was irrelevant. That Americans were unemployed, that American wages were stagnant, made no difference. The wealth that built bridges, highways and buildings was squandered in trade deficits, but so what? Both our mouths, the one on our face and the leather one in our pocket, were being fed constantly. Ruined roads meant ruined cars, which meant you bought another one! The truly wealthy, the political and corporate heads, had private aircraft, sent their children to private schools, and had nothing to do with the physical and human wreckage below them.
Our economic system, instead of serving the citizens, serves only those who own multi-national corporations, and those who manipulate public opinion- 'leaders' and 'journalists'. We are no longer the engine of the economy, we are the batteries that keep it alive, being sucked dry while imagining we are being served. We are being played. And that includes you, Mr. Professional, Ms. Big Suburban House, The Honorable I Have a Title. All of us are being played.
The corona pandemic is exposing this mess in a major way. We don't even make our own personal protective equipment! Covid-19 tests from China are defective in the millions. We don't make our own drugs! We don't make anything. Hell, with the restaurants closed a lot of people have found out we don't even make dinner. We are suddenly exposed for what we are- self-satisfied but weak, lacking facilities to take care of ourselves. We are no kind of world leader in anything but consumption.
There are major changes that ought to follow the pandemic, lockdown mess we've created for ourselves. Manufacturing needs to come back to the US. Prohibit importation of finished goods from any factory not conforming to US environmental and labor law. Require companies selling products in the US to make them here. The idea of a borderless world is ludicrous, and borders are suddenly very well enforced when threatened by disease. Make immigration mean something again. Prohibit transfer of money out of the US. No more siphoning off money to relatives elsewhere, or corporations sending it overseas to avoid taxes. Make healthcare universal. Stop the political infighting and do what everyone wants. Make the minimum wage 15.00 hourly. Absolutely no one can live on 7 bucks an hour and everyone knows it. All political contributions of labor unions and corporations should end. Workers have been screwed long enough. They need serious representation, not a leadership that represents featherbedding and political corruption. Likewise no politician should be listening to corporations who are paying their bills.
I hope too that Americans will look actively to buy American goods instead of foreign ones, and so also with corporations.
Those are to me the lessons of Corona virus. We have become fat and vulnerable through our own greed and gullibility. Please, no more. The deaths from Corona will have some meaning if they awaken us to end our weakness and dependency.
Ted
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