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Title: A radical redistribution of income undermined US entrepreneurship
Source:
billy blog, Alternative Economic Thinking
URL Source: http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=16992#more-16992
Published: Nov 22, 2011
Author: Bill Mitchell
Post Date: 2011-11-22 09:49:01 by lucysmom
Keywords: None
Views: 4749
Comments: 8
There was an Bloomberg Op Ed today (November 22, 2011) – Protesters Ignore American Love of Entrepreneurs – by Harvard economist Edward Glaeser. It is an attack on the OWS movement and an appeal to how great American entrepreneurship is. The ideas resonate with some recent work I have been doing on the impacts of national income redistribution under neo-liberalism on aggregate demand and the role of the financial sector. The link is that entrepreneurship in the US is not what it was and it is an illusion to think that the past two decades or so bears much similarity to the heyday of US entrepreneurship, whatever your view of the latter is. The entrepreneurs are disappearing in American and being replaced by rapacious wealth shufflers who add nothing to productive capacity or general prosperity. I was talking to one of my PhD students about the way nomenclature is used in different ways. When an economist talks about “investment” – the term is being used to describe the flow of spending that is aimed at augmenting productive infrastructure – more equipment, buildings etc. Buying a government bond or a share in a listed company is not investing to an economist. Entrepreneurs invest, hedge funds rarely invest. That distinction helps to understand why the Glaeser article misses the point. Glaeser asserts that: The Occupy Wall Street movement is fighting an almost unwinnable battle against the ghost of Steve Jobs. America’s love affair with entrepreneurship complicates any attempt to mount an effective European-style war of have-nots against haves. To be successful, the new economic populists must connect their message with the American embrace of those, like Jobs, who become rich by improving our economy and the world. While the OWS movement and the related general anger in the community might be, in part, a cry about income inequality and high incomes per se I consider it to be much broader than that. I don’t just see the “Occupiers” as being “angry that President Barack Obama didn’t do more to eliminate the inequities of American life”. I see them angry about an elite that has hijacked the economic system and made it work less productively than before while redistributing more of what is working to themselves. So it is not just a distributional issue.
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#1. To: Not Badeye, A K A Stone, Fred Mertz, Godwinson, go65, war, no gnu taxes, Skip Intro, ferret mike, jwpegler, mininggold, brian s, mcgowanjm (#0)
The OWS movement intrinsically knows that that the America of old is defunct and an elite of bankers has taken over the economy and use it to gamble – often winning spectacular amounts but, equally sometimes losing. The gambling elites have arranged things so that the losses are all borne by the masses while the gains have been increasingly privatised. More US economic activity is now described in this way rather than the “glory” days of classic US entrepreneurship in the 1950s and 1960s. Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
: To: Robin I think as long as we are paying for and fighting wars for our special friend in the Middle-East, then the American people should enjoy the same social programs & medical care that the people of that nation enjoy. Been sayin' this for 10 years now. Always good to be reminded. "If you are depressed, try to figure out which part stems from your own personal life and background, and which part stems from the privations of living in American society. In the latter case, this will be obvious if there's not enough money to make ends meet, or you've lost your house, or you can't afford proper medical treatment, and so on. If you can figure out which part is personal and which part is not, you're ahead of the game. If you can separate the two, the personal and the societal, you are likely to see with increasing clarity what a god-awful, heart-breaking, soul-crushing experience living in contemporary America truly is. What is missing in America? We might better ask what isn't missing? For most working or retired Americans, just about every damn thing a human naturally values is absent—sufficient resources to live on, meaningful and interesting work, large, loving extended families, freedom from predators, a sense of community, you name it. For example, see my recent post America — A Swindler's Paradise."
Could there be less trading on the floor of the NYSE right now? Tomorrow's news dump will be horrendous.
What we do have is a pseudo-Christian culture that teaches a failure to provide "just about every damn thing a human naturally values...sufficient resources to live on, meaningful and interesting work, large, loving extended families, freedom from predators, a sense of community" is a personal, moral failing. James 2:6-7: However, you have dishonored the poor man. Do not rich men exploit you and do they not drag you into the law courts? Do they not slander the noble name called on you?
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
So very amusing to see that when these ponzi pricks are finally forced to face the music, the real questions start being asked. How much gold you got? Put a fork in us. We're done.
We have sufficient resources. Ever been to Walmart? Even Kmart or Krogers? I don't know about you but my work is interesting and meaningful. I have a loving extended family. I am no prey. Sense of community may be missing.
If you didn't see yourself as prey, you wouldn't complain about the things you complain about.
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
special economics for liberals !
If you ... don't use exclamation points --- you should't be typeing ! Commas - semicolons are for girlie boys !
The neo-liberal redistribution of national income instigated by the financial market lobbying of the US Congress has served to undermine US entrepreneurship.
#2. To: lucysmom (#1)
#3. To: All (#2)
#4. To: mcgowanjm (#2)
What is missing in America?
#5. To: lucysmom (#4)
#6. To: mcgowanjm (#2)
For most working or retired Americans, just about every damn thing a human naturally values is absent—sufficient resources to live on, meaningful and interesting work, large, loving extended families, freedom from predators, a sense of community, you name it.
#7. To: A K A Stone (#6)
I am no prey.
#8. To: lucysmom (#7)
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