Revolution of Sanity in America: The Business of Bread and Circuses

Monday, March 28, 2011

The Business of Bread and Circuses

Business is neither good nor evil. Business has no soul or conscience. The primary objective of business is to make a profit.

The free market is a concept. In concept the free market should be unaffected by normative judgment. However, whenever people are involved, and there are always people involved in business and the markets, the free market will be influenced by their perceptions, beliefs, and objectives; as well as the power they wield in influencing the market. Put as simply as I know how to, markets are influenced by the people that participate in them and the people that control them.

The more economic democracy we have, the "freer" the markets are. Please understand that I believe that free markets are good and that people should be rewarded for work and merit. I do not believe that the vast majority of the American population should be denied "the pursuit of happiness" because ostensibly free markets are rigged and being controlled and manipulated by politicians and lobbyists for the benefit of the wealthy and global corporations. And I certainly don't believe that markets that are manipulated by theft, deception and fraud, should masquerade as free markets.

I cannot think of one free market that is operating in the world today; though I can enumerate many "kinda" free markets. The most obvious one is the oil market.

Friedmanites argue that the free markets are alive and well and support their position with flawed data. One disciple of Friedman and Kuznets recently stated that consumption in America is at an all time high, and in the same breath denounced TARP as being a failure. He continued by stating that intervention by the public sector is "forcing out private sector participation."

Have we forgotten September 2008? It comes back to human beings, and perceptions, beliefs and objectives. Without government involvement there is no indication and certainly no reason to believe that the private sector will act according to b school paradigms. And a sick, impoverished population is not able to purchase much in the way of goods and services.

Today, many Americans are acting like the little boy who is whistling in the dark; all the while waving the American flag and consuming McDonalds and watching NASCAR and the WWF.

I will leave you with a couple of quotes. The first one may explain the "rabid dog" demeanor of many Republicans which is characterized by the lower incisors protruding up, onto the upper lip. "It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured." Tacitus

The second quote requires no explanation. "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator. " George W. Bush

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Coming of Age

As a teenager during the late sixties and early seventies, with the Counterculture and multitude of movements for social change and vocal opposition to the war in Viet Nam, I developed an affinity for politics. I grew up in Orange County, California; my grandparents were part of the silent majority. I fondly remember the Snickers bars with Barry Goldwater stickers pasted on them that were passed out by our neighbors during Halloween. The prevailing sentiment was that Democrats or Liberals, as they were often referred to, wanted to tax the hard working folks and spend it recklessly on social programs for the lazy, undeserving citizenry. Republicans wanted to keep the world safe for democracy and preserve justice and the American way. It was that simple.

My interest in politics took me to an eastern university. I discovered the logical flaws in the political philosophy of Karl Marx. Marx presupposed that human nature could be altered within the constructs of a political system; that man maturated in such a system and left to his own devices would act in the interests of the society, the greater good, and "ignore" his complex, self-centered, instinctual nature.

I found solace in Peter Drucker who affirmed that America is "The Last Best Hope." He explained that democracy is a compromise between groups of men within the society and that man exercises his self-interests through the groups he supports or associates with. No group dominates and no group has all of its interests sated within the constructs of the political system; a balance of power on all levels, in society as well as government. It was a little more complex.

But what happens if one group gets all the power and its interests are detrimental to all the other groups? The current Republican administration bears little resemblance to the one I knew as a boy. The Bush Administration is marked by huge tax cuts and obscene deficit spending for the benefit of the rich, no social programs here. Even Pat Robertson acknowledges that America went to war for oil and not democracy. Bush's arrogance in misleading the American people is especially appalling. The hard working folks of today and tomorrow are going to see huge tax increases coupled with further cuts in social programs. And the American way, a fixture of the Republican ethos, may be a thing of the past. It is frightening.

For democracy to work, the citizenry must be educated and informed. Briefly I worked as a substitute teacher at the high school level. Whether they agreed or disagreed, only two of my students had a cursory understanding of the elements in this letter.

And, that is outrageous.

FROM POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC

1734

Would you live with ease,
Do what you ought, and not what you please.

Principiis obsta.
[Latin: Resist the first advances]

Better slip with foot than tongue.

You cannot pluck roses without fear of thorns,
Nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns.

Without justice, courage is weak.

Where carcasses are, eagles will gather,
And where good laws are, much people flock thither.

Blame-all and Praise-all are two blockheads.

No man e’er was glorious, who was not laborious.

What pains our Justice takes his faults to hide,
With half that pains sure he might cure ’em quite.

In success be moderate.

Take this remark from Richard poor and lame,
Whatever’s begun in anger ends in shame.

What one relishes, nourishes.

Fools multiply folly.

1735

Look before, or you’ll find yourself behind.

Bad Commentators spoil the best of books,
So God sends meat (they say) the devil Cooks.

Approve not of him who commends all you say.

By diligence and patience, the mouse bit in two the cable.

Full of courtesie, full of craft.

A little House well filled, a little Field well tilled, and a little Wife well willed, are great Riches.

Some are weatherwise, some are otherwise.

*** Dyrro lynn y ddoeth e fydd ddoethach. [Welsh: Who gives drink to the wise, he is wiser.

The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach to his meat.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

Weighty Questions ask for deliberate Answers.

Be slow in chusing a Friend, slower in changing.

Pain wastes the Body, Pleasures the Understanding.

The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone.

Humility makes great men twice honourable.

A Ship under sail and a big-bellied Woman,
Are the handsomest two things that can be seen common.

Keep thy shop, & thy shop will keep thee.

The King’s cheese is half wasted in parings: But no matter, ’tis made of the peoples milk.

What’s given shines,
What’s received is rusty.

Sloth and Silence are a Fool’s Virtues.

Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things.

A Lie stands on 1 leg, Truth on 2.

There’s small Revenge in Words, but Words may be greatly revenged.

A man is never so ridiculous by those Qualities that are his own as by those that he affects to have.

Deny Self for Self’s sake.

It is better to take many Injuries than to give one.

Opportunity is the great Bawd.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.

To be humble to Superiors is Duty, to Equals Courtesy, to Inferiors Nobleness.

An old young man, will be a young old man.

The Sun never repents of the good he does, nor does he ever demand a recompence.

Are you angry that others disappoint you? remember you cannot depend upon yourself.

One Mend-fault is worth two Findfaults, but one Findfault is better than two Makefaults.

1736

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the Philosophers-Stone.

Diligence is the Mother of Good-Luck.

He that lives upon Hope, dies farting.

Do not do that which you would not have known.

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

Tis easy to see, hard to foresee.

Admiration is the Daughter of Ignorance.

He that buys by the penny, maintains not only himself, but other people.

He that can have Patience, can have what he will.

The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.