Church of Economics

[John Gelles <jjgelles@xxxxxxxx>]

		   AS THOUGH YOU DIDN'T KNOW

	The median standard of living and level of personal
	anxiety over their own and their children's economic
	future exhibit trends adverse to middle class security
	in advanced industrial nations.

	These trends persist in the face of unprecedented
	technological potential for economic prosperity.

	The fault may be placed in part on the triumph of
	form over substance in all societies, over time.

	Fault is also assigned to human nature: Just as
	atheletic competition does not value median perform-
	ance, so economic competition mirrors this model,
	softened only slightly by other competitive models,
	like politics and war, where voting and dying are
	are distributed in egalitarian fashion.

	Keynesian remedy relies on the the reinvention of
	money to promote full employment and higher standards
	of living for entry level and median income workers.

	Marxist remedy reinvents property with roughly the
	same goals in mind.  But it appears to have relied
	on class conflict belief to the detriment of its
	initial aim.

	Orthodox centrist economics offers no remedy in the
	absence of more severe crises, such as widespread
	famine, riot, war or natural disaster.

	What is the relation between business science,
	economics, finance, and political science, in
	defining the problem behind the trends and remedies
	suggested by their respective disciplines?
	
			Finance, business, and money politics
	appear to be our chosen leaders, with economics play-
	ing an abstract role not unlike that of the church in
	the age of kings.

	This being so I've been praying for federal allocation
	of capital at interest pegged to half the rate of growth
	for owner-occupied housing, cure of infrastructure and
	environmental real deficits, automation to protect that
	rate of interest, and science to do the math that puts
	money on line in the service of higher real wages,
	real profits, and real wealth.  (I see Secretary Rubin
	has made a start with a new hundred dollar bill. Let
	the presses and good times roll!)

		John Gelles