Jobs, Pay, Prices, Green, Peace

["John Gelles" <johng@xxxxxxxxxx>]

    Recent discussion of full employment and how
    to reach it, sustain it, make it green, tie it to decent
    living standards, democratize it and the nation, and
    contribute to peace -- may not have convinced
    conservatives that we know what to do in the
    face of current global economic uncertainty.

    We know that global labor, product and financial
    markets -- unregulated as far as desirable labor
    and environmental standards are our concern --
    are not the beginning and end of economic wisdom
    on earth. We know that price alone, as magical as
    it is, responds to human folly -- it does not stop it.

    I suggest we imagine extreme models to clarify
    some of the issues that separate us:
        a. Imagine robots only work -- that all people
            are free to avoid work.
        b. Imagine every person already owns all he
            will ever need -- he will never spend a dime.

    Given these imagined conditions, we still want full
    employment -- so each person can have a calling
    and the comfort a calling provides -- and all the
    good things on earth already mentioned associated
    with full employment.

         How will money, price, personal earnings and
         bank interest fit into a scheme that addresses
        our imagined world?

    I believe we can now see that what our economy
    will have to produce will be supplies to fill national
    needs.

    The demand required would reflect the endless need
    to repair, replenish and perfect the earth and all the
    public space and places people (who need nothing)
    would still inhabit.

    The money required to buy such needs would reflect
    their cost -- which, in turn, would reflect supply.

    The profit motive to drive production would require
    the rate of personal earnings to greatly exceed the rate
    of interest on savings. And the saved profits and
    earnings would require protection from rising costs
    and prices -- going forward in time.

    If, in any of our solutions to the general problem of
    jobs, pay, prices, peace and our environment, we
    have neglected the importance of supply, profit and
    savings, and their protection going forward in time,
    we must revisit such solutions to make changes.

    Global market prices may serve to enrich a few.
    They cannot be put forth as a solution to the real
    problems encountered in earth's political economy.

        John Gelles