http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12dowd.html?em
With modernity crumbling, our thoughts turn to antiquity.
The decline and fall of the American Empire echoes the experience of the Romans, who also tumbled into the trap of becoming overleveraged empire hussies.
As our sand-castle economy washes away under the tide of bad gambles and debts, this most self-indulgent society lurches toward stoicism (even bankrupt Iceland gives us the cold shoulder and turns to a solvent superpower). It’s going to require more than giving up constant infusions of stocks, Starbucks and Botox.
As Seneca, the Roman Stoic who advised treating the body “somewhat strictly,” wrote in a letter: “Avoid whatever is approved of by the mob, and things that are the gift of chance. Whenever circumstance brings some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm ...They are snares. ... we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.”
The study of Latin and Greek, with illuminations on morality, philosophy, mob rule and chariot races, reached a nadir in the greedy ‘80s and ‘90s, when it seemed irrelevant for kids who yearned to be investment bankers and high-tech millionaires. But now we’ve learned the hard way that greed is bad — .... avaritia mala est — and the classics have staged a comeback. Amo Latinam, so I was happy to see last week’s Times story about the soaring enrollment for Latin classes in New York.
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THis, and all of the other government-created recessions, have been failures of socialism, not capitalism. The reason that the auto makers failed is because the government forced them to pay their union employees more than they could afford to pay and remain competitive (and eventually even solvent). The housing bubble was caused by the government illegally using our tax money to back mortgages for people who never would have received them in a capitalist free market and who obviously couldn't afford them, thus all of the defaults. Both problems were the predictable results of NOT allowing capitalism to work.
If by "greed," you mean the desire to accumulate more property than you need, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and it had nothing to do with this crisis. As long as you are accumulating property in voluntary exchange there is no amount that is "too much," and no crisis will ever occur, no matter how rich you get. THat is because true capitalism is based upon voluntary exchange. You accumulate a lot of property by offering buyers of your products or services that much value in return.
This crisis was caused by government forcing some people (taxpayers) to provide other people (sub prime borrowers) houses that they did NOT earn (i.e. did not offer equal value in return, nor secure the voluntary consent of the contributors). THere is nothing capitalist about that exchange. On the contrary, it was textbook socialism.
In the case of the auto companies (a side issue, I know), it was a case of the government FORCING some people (shareholders of the auto companies) to give other people pay, benefits, and pensions that they (the auto companies) neither agreed to nor could afford. It resulted in their inevitable failure, first through non-competitiveness, then insolvency.
Until people start realizing what REALLY caused the destruction of the greatest economy the world has ever seen (and cease to ask government to keep doing it - as when tens of thousands cheer wildly when Obama promises to steal money to buy them healthcare), we will NEVER make any progress toward freedom or prosperity.
This "failure of capitalism" nonsense and villification of "greed" misinforms people and contributes to the problem, and it is getting really old.
Tom Mullen
www.tommullen.net
www.myspace.com/skepticsongs
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God" - Thomas Jefferson
Do you really consider this to be the end of capitalism?
Since the Great depression of the 1930s there have been many mini crises of capitalism. None however have been as bad as the present crises.
The elite over those years have always managed to correct what had gone wrong. Always the correction was corrected with the finances of the woking masses. Taxation of one sort or another being the main instrumentation.
Once again the taxation of the masses is to be the selected tool to fix the global economy.
However if as estimated there is a massive black hole, a guesstimate of $516 trillion has been suggested, all the taxation in the universe wont be able to fix it this time around.
regards
Nil satis nisi optimum.
I think this is the beginning of a dymanic transformation of capitalism as we've known it into something else. That something else has yet to surface, but the seeds are all around. Getting there is going to be painful.... but in the end... yes... this is the beginning of a much needed economic overhaul and leveling.
__________________
Freedom is an inside job
Not to quibble with you Truthserum, but just exactly what are you suggesting as the transformation of capitalism into...something else? Huh? Economic overhaul and leveling sounds a little nefarious without anything to go on. Please, please share your view from behind the curtain. Most purveyors of ideas I come in contact with are willing and able to provide some form of framework from which to work. Your post offers nothing of substance to begin with and much less to build upon.
How about capitalism begats socialism begats communism? Not that I believe this, however it is a place to start.
Not to quibble, but I don't think the answers have surfaced yet. When I say "seeds are all around," I mean seeds of thought, of creative ideas. I don't think Socialism as we've known it is going to replace capitalism as we've known it either. I think it's time to go out of the box.... and come up with the new.
Please don't be offended that I don't know what the "new" is... and can't yet put forth substantive ideas. I just keep noticing how I pay bills these days out of my account... and that I don't see much cash anymore. The software is already in place... it's just that it's owned and operated by established institutions. With those institutions facing demise.... it seems that the necessary steps into a new system of wealth distribution are already gathering in cyberspace.
If you want references of what's already been tried, google "alternative economic systems," and you'll find a wealth of material. Cornell University has established an egalitarian community (Ithaca, NY,) that prints their own currency within the community. Other attempts have been put forth. Google the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and you'll find a whole library of articles on alternative economics. I'm too busy to find and post these sources tonite... maybe tomorrow.
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Freedom is an inside job
TS,
I can only surmise what may be your thoughts for the "new" political economic system that is out of the box. Egalitarianism has a place as an aspirational academic social philosophy, however it is not very practical in today's competitive societies. A few hippie hold-overs swapping script in Ithaca do not a political economy make. I wait with bated breath for your next post. Please find a few resources regarding real ideas promoting liberty and freedom among large, modern, socio-political economies .
so you can go find the sources yourself. And before you criticize Ithaca, go and visit. At least theyve attempted to create some kind of nacant prototype. I'd wager that's more than you've done.
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Freedom is an inside job
Not to quibble with you Truthserum, but just exactly what are you suggesting as the transformation of capitalism into...something else? Huh? Economic overhaul and leveling sounds a little nefarious without anything to go on. Please, please share your view from behind the curtain. Most purveyors of ideas I come in contact with are willing and able to provide some form of framework from which to work. Your post offers nothing of substance to begin with and much less to build upon.
How about capitalism begats socialism begats communism? Not that I believe this, however it is a place to start.
You might want to delve into the mechanisms of modern monetary policy a little bit. I agree that taxation is one of the tools of the state oligarchs, however a more insidious form of confiscation of wealth is fiat money production by the Fed. In times like these, the Fed increases the supply of money in the economy, thereby reducing the purchasing power of dollars in hand. Prices rise as a direct result of this fiat money induced inflation.
May I recommend "The Creature From Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin, as a fairly accessible explanation of the Federal Reserve's nefarious conduct since its inception in 1913.
Usually I'd bypass this post since it refers to another of the media elite hacks. But I couldn't this time and now that I've read the excerpt and find that Ms. Dowd is "happy to see last week’s Times story about the soaring enrollment for Latin classes in New York", I'm a little curious about her point. The classics have staged a comeback....oh really; since when.
Classical edcuation was long ago supplanted by the social engineers of the modern and post modern eras. Remember Dewey...not much of a classicist was he. That Ms. Dowd would now invoke antiquity as holding some mysterious key to our current malaise is laughable. May I suggest spending a little time with Victor Davis Hanson to learn about our direct links with antiquity and what it has always had to offer, if one has the guts to face it.
http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson100608.html
say something original. Doud is a human being doing what she does. Why fit her into a contemptuous stereotype?
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Freedom is an inside job
TS,
A little digging will bring one ample evidence of Dowd's decline to Pop Culture Hack. A once promising journalist turned vile hack. 'Tis a shame, but the truth nonetheless. Enjoy the following if you can:
http://www.nationalreview.com/seipp/seipp200409010050.asp