http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2008/10/wednesday-night-1387/ Where the world comes together Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:43:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2008/10/wednesday-night-1387/#comment-5034 David & Terry Jones Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:21:29 +0000 http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2008/10/wednesday-night-1387/#comment-5034 Taking up your offer to comment on the financial actions in the U.S., we judge it to be a reflection of the long-standing erosion of "trust" in U.S. political institutions. It is hard to find an instance over the past generation in which these institutions have deserved the "trust" that they have sought--and usually been accorded. You can make your own list, but from left, right, and center, our leadership has profoundly disappointed. You don't get a situation in which public support for the president is 30 percent (before this crisis) and support for Congress around 20 percent and expect the public to follow. Moreover, the entire frenzy/rush suggested panic rather than perspective: a panic to help those who are rich and privileged/pampered. A rush to "help" with "my money" individuals and institutions that make sums that are incalculable for the "severely normal" Amcit outside the Beltway. So occasionally, the political structure may be better off letting the people have their way. It would ultimately be more destructive to force a huge public expenditure--that may well not work--than to do nothing other than let the "system" work itself out. If the people have been warned that pain will be the consequence of inaction--and there is pain--well, they have chosen pain. If they have massive expenditure forced on them--and there is still pain, trust will be even further eroded. To be sure, the adage that "If you can keep your head while all about you others are losing there, it means that you really don't understand the situation" could be true. But nobody is going to starve in the streets--and the "system" will work itself out. Anyone who says they have/know the answer is lying (perhaps only to him/herself, but lying just the same.) And the experts in the end are still guessing along the line of "laying all the economists end to end without reaching a conclusion." So yes, I expect an "answer"--that will show that the ostensible leaders have done something. But it will take some while to determine whether a decision not/not to make a decision would have been the better decision. <strong>David & Terry</strong> Taking up your offer to comment on the financial actions in the U.S., we judge it to be a reflection of the long-standing erosion of “trust” in U.S. political institutions.
It is hard to find an instance over the past generation in which these institutions have deserved the “trust” that they have sought–and usually been accorded. You can make your own list, but from left, right, and center, our leadership has profoundly disappointed.
You don’t get a situation in which public support for the president is 30 percent (before this crisis) and support for Congress around 20 percent and expect the public to follow.
Moreover, the entire frenzy/rush suggested panic rather than perspective: a panic to help those who are rich and privileged/pampered. A rush to “help” with “my money” individuals and institutions that make sums that are incalculable for the “severely normal” Amcit outside the Beltway.
So occasionally, the political structure may be better off letting the people have their way. It would ultimately be more destructive to force a huge public expenditure–that may well not work–than to do nothing other than let the “system” work itself out. If the people have been warned that pain will be the consequence of inaction–and there is pain–well, they have chosen pain. If they have massive expenditure forced on them–and there is still pain, trust will be even further eroded.
To be sure, the adage that “If you can keep your head while all about you others are losing there, it means that you really don’t understand the situation” could be true.
But nobody is going to starve in the streets–and the “system” will work itself out. Anyone who says they have/know the answer is lying (perhaps only to him/herself, but lying just the same.) And the experts in the end are still guessing along the line of “laying all the economists end to end without reaching a conclusion.”
So yes, I expect an “answer”–that will show that the ostensible leaders have done something. But it will take some while to determine whether a decision not/not to make a decision would have been the better decision.
David & Terry

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