Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The State of Everything

Click here to access article by Peter Radford from Real-World Economics Review Blog. I have had difficulty in finding a biography for this writer, but being on the board of editors for this widely read professional website, he clearly is an economist of some reputation.

I post this piece because it provides more evidence to support my (and others) thesis that the middle class is dramatically becoming disillusioned with the system of capitalism, and that this poses a major threat to the maintenance of the system. 

Contrary to popular usage in the US, sociologists define the middle class as workers who are given special privileges and higher pay to manage and support the system. You see, capitalists know diddly-squat about managing any kind of economy. They live off their money and the system of capitalism that makes this possible. They have a faith-based belief that everything must be a commodity to be bought, owned, and rented or sold. Money is the lubricant that makes the machine of capitalism function. And, capitalists control the money supply through their central banks. They only know how to use people to serve their sole interest of accumulating more wealth and power. Hence, they hire (rent) people--managers, scientists and highly trained technician, academicians, and other professionals to run the system--and, they reward them well. These are the true middle class; and as you can see by the example of this writer, they are becoming seriously demoralized.
I have been mightily diverted by technological and personal matters recently and so am struggling to catch up. As I do so one theme has stood out: exhaustion. We are exhausted. Morally, intellectually, politically, and every other way. We seem to have fought our way into a state of enforced lassitude within which we can no longer even imagine progress. We are suffering from a form of trench warfare. Our leaders are exposed as inept. Brilliantly educated, earnest, well informed, and well intentioned. They are inept. So much for all those advanced degrees and professional qualifications. In our hour of need they amount to not much more than paper. Those achievements are nice to hang on walls to remind us of the hours spent poring over books in the library, or yawning through interminable, and marginal, classes on subjects no one but the professors were interested in, but they don’t appear to guarantee solutions to actual economic problems.

The state of everything is a mess.