In response to our economic troubles there have been two commercials providing a conflicting message that ultimately is bad for the middle class. One commerical, paid for by realtors, delivers and optimistic message that better times are ahead in terms of home sale prices. The other, from a business interest group, provides a cautionary message [...]
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This is part of a series on the implications of what societies choose to equate with wealth.
There is one possible standard for wealth that is frightening to corporations. This comes as no surprise. Being the main ambassadors and beneficiaries from trade, business corporations would not want us even thinking about self-sufficiency. There are two arguments [...]
This is part of a series that reflects on the implications of what societies choose to equate with wealth.
You might think that productivity is a big deal in this country, what with the attention given to Gross Domestic Productivity, or GDP. A closer look of what our GDP truly represents refutes this notion. First, consider [...]
This is part of a series that reflects on the implications of what societies choose to equate with wealth.
You do not have to go far away or back in time to find evidence of people treating consumption as wealth. Indeed, the American “trader” does not come to mind so much as the American “consumer,” and [...]
This series reflects on the implications of what societies choose to equate with wealth.
Evolution involves trial and error. Given a cold climate, and the ability of species to mutate, over time they will develop an insulation covering like fur and become more rounded. Other mutations might occur, such as becoming more elongated, but the organisms [...]
I began my economic research early in 2005 by acquiring an economics course on CD, taught by Dr. Timothy Taylor, economist at Macalester College. Two economic doctrines jumped out at me right at the start. There are allegedly three basic questions for the economics of resource distribution: how are resources distributed; who gets them; and [...]
Economics is about resource distribution. Laissez faire folks like to say it is about scarce resource distribution, to which I beg to differ, but I’m not a grand economic scholar. Over the past few months I have shown a series of graphs that showed resource distribution in various sectors, as represented by income in those [...]
Continue reading about Our Resource Distribution Has Changed. So What?
If you want ultimate fixes to a problem, you should be focused on ultimate causes. The only economists apparently in this pursuit are behavioral economists, as they have been revealing for us just how unnatural greed is. The rest, even the “good guys” from a middle class perspective (hint, not laissez faire economists), are busy [...]
In Systems out of Balance I often point out the similarities between economics and ecology. Both disciplines look at resource distribution; ecology focuses on natural systems of resource distribution, economics on cultural systems. In particular I draw parallels between the survival strategies of organisms and the survival strategies of economic systems.
Our own economic system is [...]
Recent graphs have shown economic trends since 1948 in regards to our economic productivity. These graphs were spurred in part by a recent emphasis on consumer spending and saving financial markets as solutions to our current predicament. But our financial markets and consumer spending took off from the seventies up until recent events, suggesting that [...]
