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www.NationalView.org's Note From a Madman
November 26, 2008
There will be no Note From a Madman on Thanksgiving Day... unless these turkeys try to throw a fast one past us as we're all high on tryptophan. -NG
Madman-omics 101
While the number of payroll jobs in October have dropped by some 240,000; and
while the ranks of the unemployed rose by 603,000 in just that one month alone,
one has to wonder what the financial markets are doing these days.
Of course, they're up.
(I wonder if President-Elect Barack Obama putting his economic team together
with proven, trustworthy people had anything to do with it?)
After mostly horrific down valleys in the market, with a few peaks thrown in
there, it was easy to notice that the past few days saw a rise in the stock
market. But a funny thing happened as those stocks began to rise for the fourth
session in a row: Jobs are still being cut.
As a matter of fact, while the jobs of yesterday were being lost to the lowest
overseas bidder over these past eight years; and while the jobs of the future
which always seem to be just around the corner never appeared, the one thing
that's been a certainty is that Americans will lose their jobs by the thousands,
tens of thousands, and now the hundreds of thousands.
The theory that says as the market goes, so does job growth is nothing but a
myth. And as we've all learned more recently, the opposite is true, too. As day
four of gains in the market are coming for the very wealthy, those of us
not-so-wealthy and downright poor Americans are still losing jobs.
The one question I have for any of those who still believe in the GOP-style of
Trickle Down economics is this: How is it possible that you really still think
it works?
Even today we hear things like how much President Bush still believes in the
open market. And where it might be true that a free and open marketplace for
ideas, with the support of private capital, can bring a nation to great wealth
and prosperity for most of its citizens, greed run-amok without regulation will
surely bring it too its knees.
How important is it for those at the bottom to be well taken care of? Much more
important than keeping those at the top on top. These past few weeks have showed
us all that.
Some estimates show the bailout reaching well over the $2 trillion mark; and
some believe that, in the end, the economic recovery and bailout of various
institutions will cost the American taxpayer as much as $7.7 trillion. Whereas
that's only about $30 per person, each one of us would like to know what we're
getting for our money?
For $30 per person (there will be some 30 people at my house this Thanksgiving)
I could buy, and prepare a nice stuffed turkey, some veggies, a few bottles of
soda and wine, and still pay for my car insurance this month and next. Or for
$30 per person, I could probably save myself the trouble and have the holiday
catered.
And that's the thing. If the government gave me $30 for each person coming to my
house this Thanksgiving, that money could go to a caterer who, in turn would
employ a person or two to prepare and serve Thanksgiving dinner to my guests. In
turn, that caterer and those waiters would turn around and spend their money
elsewhere in the economy.
This is the basis of "Madman-omics 101". If you keep the middle and poorer
economic classes in the black, they'll make sure that their dollars flow
throughout the market and keep the economy going. Capital by itself can't save
the economy - it has to be married to labor. And in order for labor to get the
dollars circulated they need to be given the chance by allowing the many to
perform in well-paid jobs; take well-earned vacations; and eat in waiter-staffed
diners along the New Jersey Turnpike.
The teaching of Economics in universities and colleges throughout the United
States is a good thing. But one has to realize that "book-learning" and
"street-learning" translate to two very distinct ideologies. To paraphrase
Abraham Lincoln, Capital cannot exist without labor and is, in fact, reliant
upon it, not the other way around.
The greatest ideas and the giant corporations founded on them, didn't begin from
the top down but from the ground up. We've all heard the stories of poor boy
makes good, however, even the greatest invention of the last half-century (if
not the last hundred years), the personal computer, had its roots in someone's
garage.
Wealth is the fruit of labor and Capital needs to be the price wealth pays for
the fruit's seed. A farmer's market is a barren place when the farmer can't
afford to grow his crops. And it's just as barren when customers can't afford to
buy them, no matter how wealthy the guy who owns the now-vacant lot is.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
-Noah Greenberg
In response to the graphic depicting Treasury secretary Hank Paulson and
President Bush as used car salesmen, Victoria Brownworth writes:
This is your best graphic EVER! Hank Paulson and George Bush as used car
salesmen---too perfect. Except so unfair to used car salesmen.
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-Noah Greenberg