I think I am suffering from some kind of delusional crisis.
I cannot decide whether I am smarter than others or so crazy as to merely think
I am. I know that I agree with Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winning economist,
but apparently not with many others, and I cannot understand why there is so
much confusion over what seems to me (and Krugman) to be so perfectly obvious.
Krugman has said recently that only the Federal Government has enough resources
to create jobs. T hat is, if we want to create more jobs it is up to the
Government to create them. This seems perfectly obvious to me, but it is apparently not at all obvious to
others, mostly Republicans, who seem to believe the Government has no business
creating jobs (and, according to some, cannot do so). This implies that the
creation of jobs is something that should be left to the private sector, a
belief I think is truly far-fetched.
We currently live in a culture that has changed over the
years from an agrarian economy into an industrial economy. Accompanying this
change has been mechanization, automation, technological innovations, and the
appearance of robotic manufacturing. This has resulted in a situation where far
fewer people can produce the necessities and wants of the entire population.
When a single farmer can produce what
used to require a dozen or so, or when robots can replace several people on an
assembly line, or there are even automatic self check-out stations in
supermarkets, and so on, it should be obvious that fewer and fewer employees
are required to do what was formerly done by many more. When you couple this
with an economic system that treats labor as a commodity, and preys on an
overabundant supply of labor, both locally and worldwide, it is absurd to
believe the private sector is going to provide jobs for all. Corporations and
the various businesses that make up our demand for labor are making record
profits, obviously with the employees they currently have. Why, then, would
they hire more employees? Obviously they do not hire people just out of the
goodness of their hearts, they hire them for the purpose of exploiting their
labor for profit. Thus to expect the private sector to create jobs over and
above their needs is a false expectation. So, then, what is to happen to the
large surplus of labor (people) that exist(s) for which there are no jobs?
When there is a large surplus of labor and no jobs for them
one obvious solution is to let them simply starve to death and die. Most
societies on earth think this is not a moral or just solution. This is why
there are things like unemployment insurance, social security, various forms of
the “dole,” and so on. Another obvious solution is for Government to provide
jobs of various kinds. These do not have to be simply “make-work” jobs, but can
also include such required positions as policemen, firemen, teachers, social
workers, construction workers, and even in some cases, artists and writers. In
extreme cases Government can create organizations such as the Civilian
Conservation Corps that can also provide useful services as they did under the
Roosevelt Administration. In any case, unless a society is willing to simply
write off its surplus population to poverty, sickness, and slow death, it has
to provide employment or at least some
form of subsidy to those in need. I gather our current Republican Party favors
the slow death arrangement as they seem to be opposed to anything that might
make the lives of ordinary people more comfortable: minimum wages, unemployment
insurance, government jobs, health care,
and etc.
All of this seems perfectly obvious to me, and, I gather, to
Paul Krugman as well, so I think I am in good company. But why it does not seem
obvious to others I do not know. Either they do not understand it or they do
understand it but just don’t care, or they are so terrified of anything that
even remotely resembles “socialism,” their minds are closed to any thought at
all.
In New Guinea, where I worked for a time, when someone has
their hair cut (which is not often if at all) they and their friends actually
mourn for the loss. Today I finally took the final step and had my stupid comb
over removed entirely. It turned out nowhere near as bad as I feared, but I am
in mourning just the same, still another
step on my journey to the west.
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