Guns and Butter
Road Kill
Chapter Three.
Lucy sure looks pretty in Pink. I wish she could have met Pop and Poppy. She would have learned a lot about the important things in life from her great-grandfathers.
Another pair of P’s is Paul Pilzer, a brilliant economist whose sophisticated thinking has contributed significantly to our society.
In Unlimited Wealth, Mr. Pilzer asks us to imagine 10 people in a village using a fishing pole to support themselves. What would happen if one person constructed a fishing net, and was able to capture enough fish to feed the entire group?
Would this society be better or worse off?
The other 9 people, theoretically are now unemployed as fishermen, but free to find other gainful means of employment.
What happens if 2 of those remain unemployed, 1 continues to fish as he has, 1 builds a new, better “fishing pole” that allows him to catch two fish in a day, 1 creates a farm raising vegetables, fruit, and animals that will feed the entire population, 1 opens a restaurant, 1 runs a school, 1 has a trash collection business, and 1 now runs and operates a movie theatre?
Is that community better off than before?
What if 5 of them decided to create a “government”, taxed the other 5 “two fish a week”, and asked Big Business to support them?
April Fool’s Day brings April showers, and that reminds me that “You can fool some of the people all the time ,all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Bernie Madoff is in jail for these kinds of shenanigans; not enough cell space available if all the government Ponzi players were asked to do time for their crime.
Some losses are on paper, some are real, some are hidden or concealed.
When I taught school, we were trying to come up with a way to initiate a new learn to swim program. The Superintendent was an ex-military man. We easily figured out how to run the program for the 1st and 2nd graders the following year. In my mind, the stumbling block was how to help those who were the current 2nd and 3rd graders who would “miss” the opportunity.
“What if we just forget them” was the Super’s solution. When it became obvious that my Sophie’s choice was to accept his decision or forgo the program, I chose to help some rather than none.
We won a state award for that innovative program, but that was my first real understanding of collateral damage.
In a recent Blog, we mentioned Pennies from Heaven are wonderful, but it seems the dollar is dying, and we wonder where it is going.
Governments and Big Businesses globally are experiencing their challenges, as are Small Business and individuals.
The problem is that we, as taxpayers, have to pay the bills for all of these challenges. Our personal discipline matters to us but doesn’t translate into the larger landscape.
Owen Meany: I CANT BELIEVE HOW SOMEONE COULD DO THIS.
Robert Prechter: Social Mood is predictable.
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