Confiscation of American Prosperity — Chapter 1

Posted August 29, 2009
Filed under: economics |

In light of the discussion about who predicted the Depression, I thought that I would post the first chapter of The Confiscation of American Prosperity: From Right‑Wing Extremism and Economic Ideology to the Next Great Depression

click below

chapter-1

1 comment so far

Reggie Greene / The Logistician on October 20, 2009

Here’s a thumbnail of what it takes, in my view, for a society to be prosperous:

1) An inventive / innovative class; people have to want to invent things and processes;

2) Cross-culturalization, where multiple inventors get together and compare their inventions, and newer \ better inventions are created;

3) Seaports or trade route intersections;

4) Business flowing from invention / innovation;

5) Decent jobs flowing from business, so people can take care of their families with pride;

6) A reasonably decent life flowing from more people having jobs; and

7) Education encouraging the repeat of the process

Either some force in society sets this in motion, governs the process, and maintains it, or it does not. If you leave it to chance, you might be on top for a while but you will not be on top indefinitely. But that is a cost of freedom, when you do not direct people what to do with their lives.

My suspicion is that China will be the next world power because they tell more people what to do, and they are more controlling. More free? Of course not. But more planning, organization, consistency, and coordination take place under their model. We in the U.S. use the “herding cats” model, and there are benefits and costs associated with it.

We’ve needed more inventors for years, and few in our country have paid attention to that issue.

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