Maybe both sides can't see the forest for the trees

[Mainecoons]

Here is a really interesting and I find persuasive discussion of why the political system in the U.S. is failing to see the forest for the trees. The detailed essay by George Friedman follows the intro by Maudlin.

http://www.mauldineconomics.com/images/uploads/pdf/OTB130111.pdf

This makes a lot of sense to me. What do you all think?

[Alif Qadr]

I have an issue that may or may not be "resolved" through discussion


There is only so much money. The people who have money are hogging it. The way for the rest of us to get money is to turn the hogs into bacon. The evil of zero-sum thinking and redistributive
politics has nothing to do with which things are taken or to whom those things are given or what the
sum of zero things is supposed to be. The evil lies in denying people the right, the means, and,
indeed, the duty to make more things.
My issue is that there are only so many "things" that people actually need and to made things that people really do not need is part of the reason why the economic situation is so abysmal in the U.S. and even worldwide. Consumerist culture only leads to an abatement of misery for later generations, for starters. I know this has nothing to do with the premise of the article/essay written by Mr. Mauldin but this issue must be addressed. What happens when the desire for consumerism wains and then markets that collapse, for various reasons? The reason I like Thomas Jefferson is the fact that he was realistic in wanting an agrarian based economy or a needs based economy. Consumerism only begets waste and excess and eventually turns the three basic necessities of life which are a.) food b.) clothing and c.) shelter into commodities Once these basics become commodities, then what Mr. Jefferson stated becomes a reality; "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Also, people only have the ability to purchase what they can afford through equity, credit or mediums of exchange which is the limit of their monetary holdings. Once this limit is reached, debt will default resulting in the inability to repay debt(s), which always ends badly. This is true for individuals as well as governments. The ensuing result is the downgrading of debtor status or credit rating which will cause the "interest rate" or usury fee to increase exponentially. This is not only what the United States and its people are currently facing but what has become the reality the world over.
This very thing is taking place right before our eyes and most either refuse to see this or are blinded to what is taking place, for various reasons.
I say this because the solution is not within an economic scheme that has brought us to this reality to begin with, nor is the solution in schemes that tolerate such extreme limitations of liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness, i.e., Marxism/Communist. The solution for these problems I do not know but I do know that all of the "remedies" that have been tried have all failed at the expense of most involved.

This of course is probably a digression away from what your OP initially intended but I just thought that I would add an "Outside of the Box" observation to the discussion of economic woes and downfalls.

[Deadwood]

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt without prior investigation."
Herbert Spencer


And what greater form of "contempt without prior investigation" could there possibly than the absolute of orthodoxy. I met a man this week who, informed about a movie called "the Great Global Warming Swindle" said he could not agree with anything in the film. Asked if he had seen it, the man replied "no."

..."and keep a man in eternal ignorance."

There you have it, the right is right because everyone anyone in the right only listens to those in the right while those on the left only listen to those on the left....

Meanwhile we have guppies making better social decisions than many Americans.