Friday, January 08, 2010

The Real Economics of Our Time




The Real Economics of Our Time

Profits do not create jobs. Wages create jobs. When people receive wages, they tend to spend them on things that fundamentally sustain an established standard of living. When people receive profits, it is considered above and beyond the income required to sustain an established standard of living. Therefore profits are excess capital in the economy for investment in research and development or entrepreneurships. The problem arises when the people with profits desire to sustain a certain standard of living based on profits rather than wages, and cut people or wages on those that generate their profits to sustain that standard of living. Because of this the basic economy shrinks and the unemployment rises.

I am of the school of thought that in order to increase the overall economy and generate more jobs. We must increase the base wage and reduce profits. It is much like growing plants. If you take a plant that has only the water and sunshine that nature provides it will generate a certain amount of sprouts. If one starts to prune all those sprouts and not provide additional water, light and nutrients, then it will die. Only when the plant receives more water (opportunity), light (education), and nutrients (higher wages), does the plant thrive and produce more sprouts (profits).

What we have done is reduce wages by moving overseas to reduce cost. This has therefore reduced wages and opportunity here. Yet we continue to flood light on the issue and convince ourselves that with education alone that we can still obtain profits. In actuality all we have done is dry up the opportunity and starve the local economy.

The reality is that the only way to turn this economy around is to take new seeds (taxes), present new opportunities (Water), and place them in a whole new light (education).

The problem is that those which have benefited from the profits (sprouts) do not want to provide any seeds (taxes) to plant.

Until people can completely understand this and stop supporting those that are selfishly hoarding all the seeds, and will only release enough seeds to those to keep the power to decide who or where the seeds are planted, then we remain at their mercy and self interest.

That is why I cannot be Republican. They seem to feel that government is the enemy because they want to safe guard the economy and look after the lower and middle class. Their policies support the corporation at the expense of the individual. It is a survival of the fittest mentality that has little sense of community. They only want to deal with social issues through the church without respect for people of different cultures. They cleverly disguise their greed and ambition through a moral facade that is socially compassionate on the surface, but in policy and practice keeps more people in poverty and powerless to be empowered into a higher class.

Perhaps people will begin to understand why Republicans’ so called moral majority wants to take education from the public and place it in private hands. Then their party can control the thinking of the masses and blame the liberals for all the social woes. It is a clever strategy, but one doomed to failure honestly. It has been done many times throughout history. Yet I am amazed at the number of people that are convinced that greed is good and compassion is immoral. The private education system is obviously working for now.

I am hopeful however, since I am a liberal Christian that has left the church because God knows I can remain a christian without following false prophets. Plus I am not so naïve to believe that I am the only one. It just surprises me how those people that call themselves Christian cannot see these false teachings, and apply different rational to social issues that are the premise of their argument and theology when it comes to their beliefs. Could not the failed economy or the division of their party not be God’s judgment of their twisted policies?

I will speculate on religion and politics in another essay. This is about economics. I just wanted to make the point that politics and religion are only a part of economics, albeit a significant part. It should be understood however that in a nation that prides itself on basic freedoms; freedom of religion, democracy, and education, that we need to connect the dots. We are free to connect them however we choose, but we cannot expect certain results when we connect them poorly. We cannot continue to grow and prosper if we fail to recognize the relationship between the fundamental institutions we support.

Personally, I believe in our nation, our constitution, our government, and our freedoms. I respect the beliefs of others, but resent the lack of respect for my beliefs. I shall always reserve the right to fight against oppression in any form or authority. As a citizen I must respect the law, but nothing precludes my right to challenge the law. I shall however discern in what is an appropriate platform to express those beliefs with consideration for others within the community. I only wish that others would reciprocate mutual considerations.

I do however understand those that have the right to survive physically, and that these rights sometimes preclude the luxury of debate. For example, ones lack of education or understanding and economic means may not allow them to communicate their needs effectively. It is up to those of us that do have the means to yield to their concerns as a matter of principle. I am not speaking of the abortion issue which is much more complicated, but the disenfranchised living.