The Twilight of the Leisure Class

Taken to its end, industrialization class distinctions are revealed by conspicuous consumption. This points to the objective of industrial production: goods in the realm of common consumption become removed from social distinction. This is what Mumford meant when he stated that the machine is a communist. Products bear the same impersonal imprint. They either function or do not. There is no difference between the light bulb – or phone, or computer, or Kindle – of the common and the wealthy to signal a difference in status. The consummation of the industrial revolution, and insofar as we link the industrial revolution to capitalism, of capitalism as well, will occur when the same can be said in all areas of production

Occupy Wall Street, Social Unrest and Income Inequality

We are seeing the specter of instability in the growing protests of income inequality, economic distress of the middle class, and economic and political power of the very wealthy. There is Occupy Wall Street in the U.S., and similar protests ranging across the globe. In parts of Europe there is rioting in the streets, in parts of China protests have turned deadly

Crisis and Instability – Searching for Terra Firma

It was not immediately clear to many when the current crisis began that it was going to be this kind of event. The G7 and IMF understand how the cash register works and have vast experience in tweaking the cash register from time to time. What is required now is a new cash register. It will mark as large of a change as Reagan-Thatcher represented at that time. Yet just as it was impossible to anticipate the Reagan-Thatcher cash register when Nixon introduced wage and price controls in 1971, so too is it impossible to anticipate the next cash register now

Quote of the Day: Desmond Tutu

He is a remarkable man, full of energy and optimism. He said something about himself that I found wonderfully humble

Pension and Ponzi Schemes

In the US, there is a heated debate about America’s government pension scheme Social Security. The Republican frontrunner for President Rick Perry has called it a ‘Ponzi scheme’, for which he was derided by the previous Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney. Here’s the question: is Rick Perry right. Is social security a Ponzi scheme?

Here’s my take

Russia’s Economic Interests (Part 1)

The neoliberal idea is to dismantle the government’s ability to regulate markets to steer growth and economic advance in the national interest. They claim that this is an alternative to centralized planning. But the reality is that it simply centralizes planning in the hands of bankers – primarily those of Wall Street and the City of London, followed by financial interests in satellite economies and other subordinate partners in this policy

The Internet’s Filter: Condemned to be Free?

Rick Bookstaber opines about a future world in which the flood of information being produced will be filtered by third parties like Facebook and Google with as yet unpredictable consequences for society. Perhaps these filters are just computationally more powerful versions of our own cognitive filters. But the filters are not under our control. We won’t understand how they are deciding what to allow through the filter for our consideration

Does LinkedIn take advantage of weak links?

Rick Bookstaber asks whether LinkedIn anything more than a resume warehouse? Is it simply a web-based Rolodex to make it easier to stay up with your business contacts? He doesn’t know the business model for the company, and doesn’t have any basis to comment on its long-term prospects, but in a somewhat stream-of-consciousness mode, he hears the “linked” in LinkedIn, and it starts him thinking about network theory, and the place LinkedIn most naturally fills in that space, which is to establish weak links

Ron Paul on Liberty

Here’s Ron Paul on Chris Matthews’ show talking about giving people greater liberty and freedom on a number of different issues. I agree with much of what he says. But here’s the part I want to focus in on: property rights. I am all for property rights. See my post “Three eminent domain cases show corporatism in action” for example. But this conversation pitted business property rights against individual liberty – and I say individual liberty wins

Why markets fail

George Soros makes the case for economics as a social science using his theory of reflexivity. Here are some additional thoughts to help understand why markets fail

Do The Facts Really Matter?

Partisans have a well-developed political world view. Facts don’t change that view. How does one deal with that? If you’re wrong, you will be confronted with a decision on how to react. The insidious thing about this is that when we are wrong, we react automatically in defense without even thinking about it. And that’s where we get into trouble. Being wrong is humbling, humiliating, shaming – and shame is an emotion that is about as powerful as fear in driving motivations. But being wrong can be a good thing. I will leave you with a TED video by Kathryn Schulz on being wrong. I think it gets at what I’m trying to say

Grantham: ‘Days of Abundant Resources and Falling Prices Are Over Forever’

Grantham: “The world is using up its natural resources at an alarming rate, and this has caused a permanent shift in their value. We all need to adjust our behavior to this new environment. It would help if we did it quickly.”