Political, economic, and social problems are solvable, so much so that the solutions can be broken down to one sentence most of the time. Unfortunately human nature is such that distasteful definitions give way to euphemisms so as to make life less stressful. Actual solutions are never even considered.
Folks get great comfort from acting on the basis that government has solutions to a host of problems. All of the empirical evidence in the world will never convince liberals that loved government programs hurt the very people they are designed to help. It is even harder to convince conservatives that using government to support business is actually not conservative in any way.
The current eco-political arena consists of just a few major categories of participants.
1.) Liberals
2.) Conservatives
3.) Welfare seekers
4.) Rent seekers.
Liberals and conservatives debate with academic arguments, unwittingly believing they will change policies when everyone “gets it right.” Both sides wrongly believe they live in a republic and that they can change government by changing representatives and changing other’s opinions.
Republican lawmakers mostly represent rent seekers who use government to extract business income from society without producing anything. As a term in economics rent means more than income received off of a rent house. When government supports the banking industry with bailouts and free money to loan, they have successfully extracted rent out of regular consumers. When subjects used to pay tribute to kings, the monarchs were being paid simply because they were there and in power. That is rent in the economic sense.
The Democrats usually represent welfare seekers who expect support from government independently of income earned through labor or enterprise. The poor never ask for handouts. Democrats support welfare as a means of building a constituency that will keep them in power. Both parties want the public to be comfortable. As long as people are comfortable, they mostly let politicians to do as they please.
Senators and congressmen support both efforts while pretending to carry out the will of voters.
Welfare and rent seeking efforts are carried out by the 1% that conservatives serve and liberals complain about. Liberals and conservatives are conditioned to promote their own poverty while mistakenly believing their leaders are taking them seriously. The poor and middleclass are always at a disadvantage but for the most part are happy.
For brief periods at the beginning of a crisis the truth becomes relevant to public policy because to the shock effect. Central banks and governments have spent the last 20 years destroying the world’s capital markets. The result will be a horrible depression and the end of various political systems, possibly our own. But, since it is human nature to do so, citizens will look to government for comfort and the depression will get worse. This was the pattern during the great depression.
Central banks and governments have destroyed the effectiveness of the world’s capital markets. One might wonder why capital markets make a difference in the lives of ordinary people.
