tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8880730471688607586.post5963903163446940843..comments2014-02-12T13:47:04.341-08:00Comments on We Do The Weird Stuff: Practically in The CastroAndrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05831971620314549213noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8880730471688607586.post-13770810144061022692014-02-12T13:47:04.341-08:002014-02-12T13:47:04.341-08:00This is a great argument. It's a sane, non-pos...<br />This is a great argument. It's a sane, non-post-scarcity response.<br /><br />It might be that REAL unregulated capitalism could still an amazing job for world flourishing -- that no radical rule changes are called for. I'm very sympathetic to this hope.<br /><br />And, nobody's fleshed out much of an alternative. I certainly haven't. Possibly starting to -- starting with just distant speculative visions and then working on what institutions might sustain or bring about such visions.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05831971620314549213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8880730471688607586.post-18453640653264511712014-02-12T13:39:32.280-08:002014-02-12T13:39:32.280-08:00[Anon response via email.]
We've gone so long...[Anon response via email.]<br /><br />We've gone so long living from bubble to bubble we can't imagine life under a normal free market.<br /><br />We have not evolved beyond the need for jobs, they have simply moved to other countries with artificially low wages. You're mentally<br />trapped in the China bubble, somehow assuming this insanity is just<br />the way the economy works now.<br /><br />Government has created so many disconnects between supply and demand you've come to accept this low-employment/no-employment stagnation as reality.<br /><br />It's like assuming the 1970s hyperinflation would go on forever,<br />unable to even imagine a Volker.<br /><br />Our current labor conditions are the result of constant, persistent<br />inflation over DECADES. Central bank distortion that has ruined<br />generations.<br /><br />But you're blaming it all on technological progress and your view is<br />hopelessly centered on the U.S. You're ignoring the distortions caused by malinvestment and ignoring the incredible demand for goods and services in the developing world.<br /><br />China is so busy fulfilling our needs they're ignoring their own. Huge<br />numbers of people are still poor, still waiting to enter the consumer<br />economy. Only a bare fraction of us have iPads.<br /><br />Millions don't even have refrigerators.<br /><br />In a sane world where capital was allowed to flow and property rights were protected, deflation would bring millions into the labor force<br />and there would be plenty for people to do.<br /><br />I'm talking about Detroit churning out cheap cars for a new African<br />middle class. It's not economics or technology keeping this from<br />happening, it's politics, and there's nothing normal or inevitable<br />about it.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05831971620314549213noreply@blogger.com