Dear All,

I've not weighed in much on the conversation because much of the
discussion, in psychological terms, is beyond my ken.  But I would like to
weigh in on the current economic thread.

Jason has very succinctly pointed out the inherent instability in
capitalism, it's innate tendency to make the rich richer and the poor
poorer.  When the old Soviet Union existed as a counterweight to laissez
faire capitalism, capitalism had to maintain a kinder, gentler facade.
After the collapse, no holds have been barred with the result that the
world's oligarchs have increased their wealth and power to the detriment of
nearly everyone else, here and elsewhere.  So, as Jason points out,
governments should intervene, to stabilize the system.  Unfortunately,
ours, by "neoliberal economics" and in decisions like "Citizen's United"
and the recent tax law, has intervened decidedly on the side of the wealthy
and the oligarchs. Inequality in the US is at a level that often triggers
revolution.

There is a missing piece to the economic landscape, however, that offers a
legitimate way for monetarily sovereign nations to intervene in
economically beneficent ways.  The notion is counterintuitive, because most
of us are under the mistaken impression that federal budgets are analogous
to family budgets.  Expenditures must be balanced by income.  Families,
however, cannot legitimately print money. Sovereign governments can.  The
argument against this is that printing money is inflationary, Weimar
Germany being the oft-cited example.

Modern monetary theory (MMT) holds that the printing of money is allowed
and is inflationary only when the country is at full production and full
employment. Abe Lincoln financed the Civil War by printing "greenbacks" and
Hitler built his war machine with fiat money. Indeed, recently, the US has
printed trillions of dollars for the Afghan and Iraq wars and the 2008
bailout, yet inflation remains low.

MMT sees the federal budget as essentially the inverse of the family
budget.  Taxation is necessary not to generate revenue but to slow the
economy if it becomes overheated.  MMT proponents would say that we always
have enough money for our priorities, which in an ideal world would include
infrastructure, universal education, universal health care, and many other
common goods.  In this light, austerity measures should be seen for what
they are: political tools not fiscal responsibility.  And the recent tax
overhaul, which will increase the national debt by $1.9T exposes, voted for
those who previously touted "fiscal responsibility," exposes the sham.

-- 
C. David ("Dave") Pruett
Professor Emeritus
Department of Mathematics & Statistics
James Madison University
540-246-3087 (Home)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Author of *Reason and Wonder* (Praeger, 2012)
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__reasonandwonder.org&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=5ZTed4uTCuG9Jzta-ei5WGSmHLRH1pXlJBeUvsOvPyQ&s=g4qV-i5WCislTnY1vDkDzXk0PyaKSZwXUusYf9yJTqg&e=  and/or https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.amazon.com_author_woksape&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=5ZTed4uTCuG9Jzta-ei5WGSmHLRH1pXlJBeUvsOvPyQ&s=SrUtK2c4MqMd6qlcKZfGQx17HFPHCHctAWcEGW3-ocQ&e=

############################

To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list:
write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
or click the following link:
http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1