BL, LW, ATEOTD

["John Gelles" <johng@xxxxxxxxxx>]

    BOTTOM LINE, LAST WORD, AT THE
                    END OF THE DAY

    These quaint words, used to signify profound
    conclusions of fact, are never followed by what
    they promise. We use them -- frustrated by
    our own inadequacy to make ourselves
    understood.

    One of my friends wants thinkers to know
    inflation cannot be ignored -- when cheaper
    money is suggested as a way to cure poverty
    and unemployment. His own ideas on cure
    are complex enough to work, but far too
    complex to offer advice shorter than fits in
    a hundred page book..  A book for an
    audience unable to read it.

    Another friend points to debt that grows faster
    than income to carry and repay it. He pleads
    for a slower rate of growth for debt that would
    be possible if lenders actually knew the odds
    that the loans they made would perform until
    retired. He admits such knowledge cannot exist
    ahead of time, so he oftens retires from playing
    with this puzzle in favor of finding fault similar to
    that circulated by Noam Chomsky.

    These friends and others, myself included, have
    last words and sentences that begin with "at the
    end of the day". Not one of them can muster
    another vote, in an audience of 500, for what
    his priorities are to meet the most obvious needs
    of our time.

    Turning away from political-economic theory
    to moral values, they might all agree on the
    golden rule: We all want done for others no
    less than we want done for ourselves. We
    want this done by the authorities and also to
    be done by the people over whom authorities
    exercise influence.

    Turning away from moral values to respect
    for natural law, we might all also agree on the
    nature of sibling rivalry:  Competition is the
    source of life -- and unbridled competition is
    its curse.
                We all delight in winning at games,
    even those we play against ourselves;  but
    designing rules that sustain both the game
    and the golden rule has proved to be nearly
    impossible since humans first learned to talk
    and nature refused to take part in their
    conversation.

    Some say the bottom line is money. But
    no one knows what that means or implies.

    Others say the bottom line is war. And just
    about everyone agrees -- before or when
    they die.

    At the end of the day, there is not just one,
    but several things to say:

    o  Structured competition in the arts and
       sciences offers a large segment of all the
       people products created by the gifted few.

    o  Unfair competition is the rule in business,
       governance, nature and war.

    o  Money and price are joined, but so is
        money and supply and demand.

    o  Being at the center of a triangle, pointing
        to price, supply and demand, leaves money
        as a mysterious force that moves markets
        with no plan of their own.

    o  People need a plan to move from sibling
        rivalry to the golden rule -- and they must
        do all the details without over-doing any.
        Else their Towers of Bable will keep
        tumbling down.


    Yes, internet forums has been discussing
    details for years. But not the right details.
                They largely ignore supply.
                They rarely acknowledge the rivalry
    that drives both invention and supply as well as
    their arguments trying to get at the problem.
                They will not reduce the universe of
    useless commentary that effectively removes
    them political action.
                They are content to earn a living as
    nothing more than lawyers for ideas that never
    worked.

    At the end of their day, there is no alternative
    -- because the purveyors of thought have not
    made one -- as a story or demonstratioin that
    they know anything at all.

        John Gelles