The social contract that once worked fairly well doesn't work all that well anymore.
As a consequence our national economy isn't doing all that well.
Seeking a single reason for this decline in our economy is sort of silly.
But I will say that one thing in particular is causing this problem, and this single problem is why I suggest that we need to rethink the SOCAL CONTRACT.
Our economic system is largely based on a theory of SCARCITY.
But our economic system (modern capitalism) has DE FACTO created a society where production pretty much eliminates SCARCITY.
Hence for a while created a CONSUMER driven economy in order to soak up that enormous productivity and there was a functional balance between supply and deamand
But the combined effect of property rights, and some rather short sighted government policies that presume that our economic system must continue to be based on a theory of SCARCITY, means that a greater and greater percentage of the wealth in the world ends up in the hands of a smaller and smaller group of capitalists.
And since we have no good means to get the wealth balance between SUPPLY AND DEMAND back into line, the working classes (which includes not just factory workers and farm workers, but pretty much everybody whose daily bread depends on them doing something productive) our economic system works less and less well for more and more people.
WE ought NOT to blame CAPITALISM for creating enormous wealth. That, after all,, is a GOOD THING.
But we cannot expect that economic system to address the SOCIAL needs of the society in which it exists, either.
The OVERALL well being of a society is NOT the job of the CAPTIALISTS.
It is merely their task to allocate resources to those processes which can create more SUPPLY.
And that is EXACTLY what they do SO WELL.
Sadly, it falls upon GOVERNMENTS to see to it that the wealth capitalism ais creating serves the society that has created it.
And there is no really effective means to do that, as long as our social contract has no fair and just way of sharing that wealth equitably ENOUGH to keep SUPPLY and DEMAND in some kind of RELATIVE balance.
As a consequence our national economy isn't doing all that well.
Seeking a single reason for this decline in our economy is sort of silly.
But I will say that one thing in particular is causing this problem, and this single problem is why I suggest that we need to rethink the SOCAL CONTRACT.
Our economic system is largely based on a theory of SCARCITY.
But our economic system (modern capitalism) has DE FACTO created a society where production pretty much eliminates SCARCITY.
Hence for a while created a CONSUMER driven economy in order to soak up that enormous productivity and there was a functional balance between supply and deamand
But the combined effect of property rights, and some rather short sighted government policies that presume that our economic system must continue to be based on a theory of SCARCITY, means that a greater and greater percentage of the wealth in the world ends up in the hands of a smaller and smaller group of capitalists.
And since we have no good means to get the wealth balance between SUPPLY AND DEMAND back into line, the working classes (which includes not just factory workers and farm workers, but pretty much everybody whose daily bread depends on them doing something productive) our economic system works less and less well for more and more people.
WE ought NOT to blame CAPITALISM for creating enormous wealth. That, after all,, is a GOOD THING.
But we cannot expect that economic system to address the SOCIAL needs of the society in which it exists, either.
The OVERALL well being of a society is NOT the job of the CAPTIALISTS.
It is merely their task to allocate resources to those processes which can create more SUPPLY.
And that is EXACTLY what they do SO WELL.
Sadly, it falls upon GOVERNMENTS to see to it that the wealth capitalism ais creating serves the society that has created it.
And there is no really effective means to do that, as long as our social contract has no fair and just way of sharing that wealth equitably ENOUGH to keep SUPPLY and DEMAND in some kind of RELATIVE balance.
