tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post351267411045686774..comments2024-03-17T03:42:21.277-05:00Comments on LEARNING CURVE ON THE ECLIPTIC: Gotta Love Thomas Piketty!Twilighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-34997638669233794832015-07-09T23:56:55.768-05:002015-07-09T23:56:55.768-05:00mike (again) ~ Ah - well I knew I'd read some...mike (again) ~ Ah - well I knew I'd read something similar somewhere before, but couldn't remember where or by whom it had been said. Thanks - glad it was Bernie! <br /><br />Now that we're at a slightly different stage of the story's development, it seems even more of a significant thing to keep in mind.Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-11339220726649734362015-07-09T19:53:36.556-05:002015-07-09T19:53:36.556-05:00Bernie said something similar at least a week prio...Bernie said something similar at least a week prior to Ian Welsh's essay:<br /><br />"Sanders, for his part, argues that the United States has an interest in helping Greece attain economic relief in order to safeguard the country’s democracy. He cites the rise of Nazism in Germany after World War I as an example of how austerity-stricken economies are susceptible to authoritarian takeovers.<br /><br />'Let us not forget, after World War I, the Allies imposed oppressive austerity on Germany as part of the Versailles Treaty,' Sanders said in the statement to HuffPost. 'As a result, unemployment skyrocketed, the people suffered, and the policies of austerity gave rise to the Nazi Party. We cannot let a situation like that ever happen again.'” <br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/01/bernie-sanders-greece_n_7709322.htmlmike (again)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-78137232498078098322015-07-09T17:53:14.473-05:002015-07-09T17:53:14.473-05:00All...
Ian Welsh has a fairly brief piece up on Gr...All...<br />Ian Welsh has a fairly brief piece up on Greece etc. Depressing, but no use being blinkered.<br /><i>"If Syriza Blinks"</i><br />http://www.ianwelsh.net/if-syriza-blinks/ <br /> Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-21886138154463777582015-07-09T11:24:06.618-05:002015-07-09T11:24:06.618-05:00Sabina ~ Thanks for your always wise words.
The...Sabina ~ Thanks for your always wise words. <br /><br />The problem has always been getting that 50% of people either the ability (in many cases) or the inclination (in many other cases) to achieve anything near an equal voice.<br /><br />Re Greece - I like the @Tweet of God tweet from "God" today:<br /><i>Greece owes Europe some money. Europe owes Greece Western civilization. Call it even?</i><br />:-)Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-47224852268806196052015-07-09T11:02:57.817-05:002015-07-09T11:02:57.817-05:00Yes, Mike, and I'd add political 'science&...Yes, Mike, and I'd add political 'science' to your list.<br /><br />I think the EU internecine finger-pointing is extremely worrisome - no single country member, much less the WB, IMF or ECB, can escape some responsibility for the current imbroglio - precisely because it plays directly to the far right parties and their insular self-proclaimed superiority. It's that old saw that united we stand, divided we fall.<br /><br />I stand in my belief that there can be another consensus reality on this planet and my belief is grounded in the fact that as yet over 50 per cent of the population, whose innate propensities are life-affirming, nurturing, and communal, has not achieved an equal voice nor vote in the direction of human affairs. <br /><br />Top down application of theoretical solutions will never succeed, whether in economics or architecture or any other endeavour. The natural world flourishes around us as an example of a waste-free self-sufficient system. Solutions to human dilemmas will only grow from the healthy feeding and care of the 'grass roots'.<br /><br />Q: Why did God create economists?<br />A: In order to make weather forecasters look good.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-919735114990521492015-07-09T10:05:17.465-05:002015-07-09T10:05:17.465-05:00mike ~ Your idea and ideal of making the whole wor...mike ~ Your idea and ideal of making the whole world equal would be a step for the far future, in an ideal world - which will not exist on this planet. Maybe on some other planet where beings have different elements within them, there'd be a chance. We'll have to work with what we've got, and continue going around in spirals, always hoping that st some point, once we've solved problems nationally, next within a union of some sort, and eventually globally....but it's all a pipe dream unless we can do it nationally first. (Just my economically uneducated opinion).<br /><br /><i>“If human equality is to be for ever averted — if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently — then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.”</i> ― George Orwell, 1984 <br /> Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-30403264063986947632015-07-09T09:41:01.716-05:002015-07-09T09:41:01.716-05:00Economics, like sociology and psychology, is a pse...Economics, like sociology and psychology, is a pseudo-science and they have similarities: they are empirical studies of human behavior. I do like Piketty's message and it's very similar to the "1% vs 99%" slogan of the past several years, but he is essentially repackaging socialism as a new invention based on his critical analysis and assessment. As JD said above, all of these economic theories have solidity in concept, but fail upon application due to the human element. That dirty, stinkin' selfish X-gene at play.<br /><br />I'm fascinated by the "1% vs 99%" mantra heard from the disenfranchised 99% of the first-world countries. We 99% feel that our fair-share of resources has been sequestered by the 1%, yet we are blind to the fact that we 99% live in the upper echelons of the money grubbers of the globe. We 99%, recognizing the disparity of wealth, should feel obliged to recognize such and redistribute our wealth with the poorer third world countries (the majority of the global population), but we don't.<br /><br />“We become slaves the moment we hand the keys to the definition of reality entirely over to someone else, whether it is a business, an economic theory, a political party, the White House, Newsworld or CNN.” B.W. Powemikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-20270614914078516572015-07-09T09:15:28.586-05:002015-07-09T09:15:28.586-05:00JD ~ thanks for your thoughts on this. I'm a ...JD ~ thanks for your thoughts on this. I'm a card-carrying ignoramus on theories of economics, but I know what I like when I see what I like. ;-)<br /><br />I agree that what's missing in most political/economics set-ups is that they omit the fact that people are different (or they capitalise too much on it). People are very, very different; communally, national stereotypes are often proof of this and do carry a certain amount of truth. This is all natural - human nature's way of making things forever variable, unequal from certain perspectives. What I like to see are ways of easing extremes of inequalities of all types, and the results of same, so that all have basic necessities and a reasonable amount of opportunity according to ability, and type of talent (we all have some of that somewhere within us). <br /><br /><i>But it is also clear that left entirely untouched by public policy, the capitalist system will produce more inequality than is socially healthy or than is necessary for maximum efficiency.</i><br />Barney Frank<br />Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-72807258929647429282015-07-09T09:04:46.819-05:002015-07-09T09:04:46.819-05:00Sonny ~ Yep - and leave it to someone with Moon c...Sonny ~ Yep - and leave it to someone with Moon conjunct Uranus in Libra to speak out when nobody else will, and to say what needed to be said!Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-72090418465732796482015-07-09T07:39:01.210-05:002015-07-09T07:39:01.210-05:00Every economic theory I have ever looked at works ...Every economic theory I have ever looked at works perfectly. Every sigle one, whether it be Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Milton Friedman, John Maynard Keynes and probably Thomas Piketty's as well (I haven't read it)<br />They all work perfectly..... in theory!!! <br />And they all fail for exactly the same reason - none of them take account of people. The economic system itself is more important than the people who live and work within and for the system.<br /><br />The only economist who wrote with any common sense was Fritz Schumacher. In fact the sub title of his most famous book is "Economics as if people mattered"<br />But you need to read all three of his books to fully understand his ideas.<br />http://www.worldwisdom.com/public/authors/EF-Schumacher.aspx<br /><br />Dangerous nonsense, of course! We can't have people lying about doing nothing; that would never do, although Jesus did give a hint that lying about doing nothing was better than running around being busy-busy :)<br />https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10%3A38-42&version=KJV<br />JDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-46266949746360628612015-07-09T07:22:50.013-05:002015-07-09T07:22:50.013-05:00Leave it to a Taurus to figure out where the money...<br /><br /> Leave it to a Taurus to figure out where the money is and how it got spent:)<br /> gotta love 'um... Sonny Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06926830309207639536noreply@blogger.com