tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5610446610888912275.post8900084067683249523..comments2024-03-20T14:04:18.741-07:00Comments on My Continuing Education: First Principles of Political EconomyGarethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03030408024299617701noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5610446610888912275.post-86574077927566396842013-02-17T21:55:07.294-08:002013-02-17T21:55:07.294-08:00I just found this. An essay called "Being Poo...I just found this. An essay called "Being Poor" by John Scalzi. Here: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/Garethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03030408024299617701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5610446610888912275.post-62949152327088831542013-02-17T19:52:27.199-08:002013-02-17T19:52:27.199-08:00I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I think those who tr...I'm glad you enjoyed it.<br /><br />I think those who trust too much in the "invisible hand" to even out opportunity and wealth are like those who would speak in general terms about the average temperature or pressure of a swirling gas. Hot and cold spots, rapid and still spots, would exist in it until all movement had ceased. And certainly the average temperature would conceal the effect of a "Maxwell's Demon" systematically adding to the heat on one side of a wall while decreasing it on the other.Garethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03030408024299617701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5610446610888912275.post-13152835287614837462013-02-17T11:41:26.785-08:002013-02-17T11:41:26.785-08:00Gareth, Gareth, Gareth! I'm laughing as I read...Gareth, Gareth, Gareth! I'm laughing as I read this, because the course I'm teaching on Thursday the 21st of this month, Banks Skanks, concludes that the primary purpose of money supply manipulation is not the management of inflation, but the management of the unemployment level so as to keep a surplus of labour which benefits the business owners and their courtiers. I also came to this realization independently of Marx, of whom I've read very little.<br /><br />Another interesting note is that the so-called 'free trade' advocates who cite Adam Smith haven't actually read his magnum opus, <i>The Wealth of Nations</i>. In it Smith's observation, 'the vile maxim of the masters', is basically the same argument. He even argues that unions are an absolutely necessary requirement in a properly functioning democracy because it helps prevent the full wage-enslavement of labour by their owners who otherwise have full control of the government and thus the force of law. <br /><br />When I get the arguments against this, I point out that the practice of using children as chimney sweeps is perhaps a near epitome of how ruthless the powerful will be to enforce the division between the haves and the have nots. Young children would be forced into flues as small as 4" in diameter with flames burning their toes as encouragement. Oftentimes the fires were not extinguished during the human cleaning because of the business cost such an interruption would cause. In my 'Economics Debunked' course I make the argument that the primary purpose of currency/money is to provide an efficient mechanism that allows for the haves to keep themselves separated from the have nots.Guy Duperreaulthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05300018595841442280noreply@blogger.com