Economics

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Economics is getting too important to be left to the Econogeeks.  It is just one of several things that people simply tinker with: dysfunctional families, ecology, unmotivated kids, etc.  In those instances, I suppose, it is justified; after all, nobody likes to prescribe to a family exactly what they ought to be doing, because you get to take on the entire responsibility for everything that will go wrong with them in the future.

But the Economy needs to be handled a lot better.  Sure, some of the same problems are there: if you take it on directly, head on, a lot of people are going to expect you to do a perfect job of it.  But it is becoming clear that "Economics" simply cannot be left to itself.

In the last week I have seen several things that have been adversely affected by the current economic climate.  Two of them are

Lilith Fair: a touring sequence of concerts by women performers.  Tickets are not selling, which is causing some of the artists to drop out of the lineup, which results in even more performers dropping out.  Obviously, when money is tight, there is still less tolerance of Mom when she wants to blow $25 on some women-only concert.  (Men do attend the concerts, evidently some very sweet guys; and we're told that there is hardly any crowding in the Men's Rooms.)

Female Imams in China: it appears that women are taking on leadership roles in the Islamic parts of China.  But again, we're told that they're being impacted by the poor economy.

I guess the more naive among us (including me) don't realize that certain things cannot be controlled too much: for instance, you can't force a performer to perform even if you cannot pay them as much as they want to be paid.  How are these things done?  Perhaps they get a flat fee, and maybe a transportation allowance, and a portion of the "gate receipts", which seems only fair.

Economics becomes this fluffy, woozy thing when a country becomes globalized to an extreme degree.  Until recently, for instance, the USA could feed itself with crops grown mainly within its borders, with inexpensive immigrant labor.  But part of the way of life here is that commodities must cost very little: cheap gasoline, cheap furniture, cheap food, cheap clothing.  The only way to do it is to get it from the third world.

Very soon, all the gasoline, furniture, food and clothing is coming from the Third World.  To begin with, the Third World is happy to provide all this, not knowing exactly how much this stuff is enjoyed over here.  But then, they would like to get computers and big cars and movies from here.  This is all very fine; they produce their stuff for cheap, we produce our stuff for not so cheap, since we're a lot more civilized, but it creates a very tight connection between their economy, and ours.

Now, there are a lot of guys who don't actually do the producing.  They actually make money on the business connections.  Every time money travels in or out, they make money.  These guys are called Wall Street.  For years they have claimed that if you mess with them, the conduit for cheap this and that will get screwed.

Well.  Leaving them to their own devices is clearly just as dangerous.  I have no suggestions as to what parts of the Economy must be controlled, or how to control it.  But consider the following:

Farmers are growing food, which they cannot sell even at prices lower than the prices charged in supermarkets.

What's wrong with this picture?  The Economy is in the hands of middle-men, who are most certainly not easy to satisfy.

Our lives become very uncomfortable if we think about this kind of problem, so we don't; the Econogeeks are only too happy to do the thinking for us, and the Wall Street Boyes are only too happy to scare the Econogeeks into gibbering idiots.

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