Re-solving the Economic Puzzle (eBook)

Walter Rybeck (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2013
198 Seiten
Shepheard-Walwyn (Verlag)
978-0-85683-402-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Pinpointing a flaw in prevailing economic practices that explains why so many families in the richest nation on earth are mired in poverty, homelessness, joblessness, and hunger, this study suggests that a reform is available to correct this flaw that is corroding the enterprise system. This flaw is widely accepted and enshrined in law; certain taxation and land policies enable a powerful few to skim off a large share of the wealth created by the mass of citizens. How this injustice plays a major role in generating destructive boom and bust cycles is important, but the overprivileged who benefit from 'legalized theft' are not vilified. Rather, the book calls for correcting the public policies that make slum ownership, land speculation, and other forms of parasitic and exploitive behavior more profitable than honest labor and productive enterprise. Accounts of places in the United States and elsewhere that are applying the proposed reform are presented, proving that it is politically feasible, and offers an ethical cleansing of the economy so that all people can enjoy all the fruits of their efforts.

null

---

Pinpointing a flaw in prevailing economic practices that explains why so many families in the richest nation on earth are mired in poverty, homelessness, joblessness, and hunger, this study suggests that a reform is available to correct this flaw that is corroding the enterprise system. This flaw is widely accepted and enshrined in law; certain taxation and land policies enable a powerful few to skim off a large share of the wealth created by the mass of citizens. How this injustice plays a major role in generating destructive boom and bust cycles is important, but the overprivileged who benefit from "e;legalized theft"e; are not vilified. Rather, the book calls for correcting the public policies that make slum ownership, land speculation, and other forms of parasitic and exploitive behavior more profitable than honest labor and productive enterprise. Accounts of places in the United States and elsewhere that are applying the proposed reform are presented, proving that it is politically feasible, and offers an ethical cleansing of the economy so that all people can enjoy all the fruits of their efforts.

Textauszug

Introduction

THIS BOOK BRINGS good news to those who want an America with full employment, a sustainable prosperity without roller-coaster ups and downs, and a return to constructive political and social discourse without rancor.

This is not to deny our critical problems. In this richest nation the world has ever known, from New Orleans to Detroit, from Boston to Los Angeles, in grand cities like Chicago and New York and in rural areas from Appalachia to the Ozarks, people are mired in poverty. Families and babies go hungry despite our prodigious ability to produce food and despite the mountains of wasted food. Large numbers of willing workers find no job in the face of unmet social and individual needs. Hordes of homeless city people roam the streets side by side with boarded-up housing. The bad news is that, if we allow current trends to continue, the outlook for our future is dismal.

However, waiting in the wings is a way to change course and revive what has been the genius of our economic and cultural life. This change requires a reform that is fully consistent with American traditions and ideals. In fact it harks back to one of the most significant factors undergirding our nation’s remarkable earlier success – a factor that somehow has been all but obliterated from our collective memory. As will be seen, it involves removing an injustice that is corroding the enterprise system and that is increasingly making us more akin to nations characterized by sharp divisions between the underprivileged and overprivileged.

Many people are angry with the poor, the hungry, the homeless and the unemployed. “I made it on my own, so why can’t they?” they ask, perhaps forgetting those who gave them a lift along the way. If the victims are at fault, there is no need to question whether there may be legitimate reasons that they are not “making it”. A majority, however, tend to sympathize with the misery of their fellow citizens, leading them to support private charities and public assistance programs. Yet neither camp – those with empathy and those without – seem inclined to pursue the root causes of our socio-economic ills.

Only those who are Pollyannaish can say all is well with our nation when jails and prisons are overflowing and when mental illness is rampant. These are wake-up calls reminding us to understand and confront our festering social malignancies.

Another Injustice to Conquer

A serious injustice permeates our country. Laws allow individuals to appropriate values created by other people’s work, depriving those who created these values of a fair return. This “legalized theft” sets off a chain reaction that has been a factor in the nation’s repetitive boom and bust cycles. It blocks job creation. It eats away at our enterprise system. It infects our democratic institutions. It diminishes social unity and harmony.

The distress following the latest economic meltdown – all the lost jobs, lost homes, lost savings, lost businesses – underscores the need for systemic reform. Only by confronting the underlying economic distortion infecting our system can our nation live up to its lofty ideals and its promise to its own people and to the world at large.

Struggles against great injustice are proud chapters of our history. The ethnic cleansing of Native Americans and the enslavement of kidnapped Africans in our nation’s formative years shock 21st century sensibilities. Women’s voices as voters were not recognized until the 1920s. It seems almost incomprehensible now that these evils were once so widely accepted. Having overcome past injustices entitles us to have a high degree of confidence that the flaws cited in these pages can be corrected as well. Each effort to correct and atone for a serious departure from our professed aims bring us closer to a society that practices as well as preaches that all men and all women are endowed with equal rights.

Deviations from our goal of justice do not contradict the fact that America has been and remains a remarkable society and a splendid ideal. History teaches us not to be stunned that decent citizens and brilliant leaders can be blind to monumental injustices. The injustice described in this book is widely practiced and accepted by good people. No irony intended. We honor Washington, Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers for their vision and political genius despite their having been slave owners. By the same token, perpetrators of our current injustice should not be held culpable. We should condemn the injustice itself, not the decent people who are actively or passively caught up in it with little awareness that they are doing so.

Americans are frequently told that our country is the greatest, the best hope of mankind, and the like, persuading some that our nation is close to perfection. To them, asserting that the nation is contaminated with a serious flaw may be so jarring that naming this flaw may invite instant disbelief and a disinclination to listen further. Of course, people who profit from an injustice tend to like and defend it, even to the extent of calling reform efforts unpatriotic. They need to be reminded that correcting the nation’s failings is among the most fundamental expressions of liberty for which patriots have sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

That said, I can identify with those who find it hard to consider that a long-standing feature of our economy, one that is embedded in our legal system, is poisoning our society. The prevalent economic theories offered in college courses make it difficult to visualize the problem or to imagine that, in some essential respects, America is not on the right path. My initial reaction to a contrary view was to deny it.

To Demonstrate an Injustice

Mainstream economists pride themselves on being analytical and non-judgmental. A message of this book is that without ethical inquiry there can be little understanding of our Great Recession or how to alleviate our chronic economic failures.

Imagine that slavery still existed. Consider how today’s social scientists would confront it. They would devise elaborate computer models to project what would happen if the institution were expanded or diminished. They would construct sophisticated regression analyses to test how various policy options would affect slaves, slave owners, and those who were neither slaves nor owners. They would measure the impacts on different industries and types of agriculture. They would indicate whether winners or losers would predominate. Mathematical formulas and input-output models, along with precise indications of margins of error, would give their findings an aura of scientific certainty. Their learned articles on the topic would reveal their discovery that slavery is not a single problem, that it is actually a multiplicity of problems, and (to ensure that their continued studies are adequately funded) that each of these facets of the problem require considerable additional research.

No need to pursue this illustration further. Econometric manipulation of data would throw little light on the central question: Was the institution of slavery right or wrong? Ethical tests are needed. This requires holding social practices up for scrutiny to see whether they conform to the highest moral codes of the people and of the nation. Slavery represented a disconnect from these high codes. A burden of this book is to show that a similar serious disconnect exists with respect to certain land and taxation policies. To make such a case, reference to concepts of fairness, logic, history and bedrock American ideals will be relied upon, however old-fashioned this approach may appear in contrast to elegant algebraic formulations.

This is not to denigrate the potent and highly useful tools of modern economists. These tools can verify the effects of various reforms and programs that are contemplated or already implemented. It is no criticism of these tools to note that they do not answer the initial question of whether something is morally acceptable. Fortunately, as it turns out, experience tells us that doing the right thing usually produces the greatest benefits for the greatest numbers.

Road Map of the Book

Part I at the very outset spells out the nature of the injustice that is undermining our economy. It is followed by a “secret remedy”, so called because it has been kept out of the public eye for a long time. Then a chapter on land and property rights aims to clarify the problem and ways of dealing with it.

Part II tells how I accidentally became alerted to the land issue.

Part III traces people and events that, in the fullness of time, provided a framework for helping me confront critical land issues. Sharing these intellectual journeys may enable others to more readily understand, if not accept, the conclusions I have reached. Of course, life embraces much more than economics and I recount my good fortune in being exposed to a rich cafeteria of opportunities. Asking why too many Americans are denied entry to such opportunities brings us back full circle to economic inequities and explains much of the motivation for writing this book.

Part IV tells of a remarkable cast of mentors and co-workers who inspired me and wove a common thread of insights into land issues throughout my careers in journalism, politics, and economics.

Part V recounts neglected or glossed over aspects of American history that have a surprising bearing on current problems and that point to forgotten conditions and...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.7.2013
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Lexikon / Chroniken
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre
• ISBN-10: 0-85683-402-5 / 0856834025
• ISBN-13: 978-0-85683-402-8 / 9780856834028