The professor has long had what you might call a hobby level interest in the dismal science of economics (The phrase derives from Malthus who held in the long run we’re going to be eating each other). And lately the results have been dismal indeed. We read of yet more problems in Europe with the Euro while the US economy seems to be sputtering yet again. It’s grim reading. What makes it even worse is the reaction of those in charge.
Paul Krugman – who really should re-title his New York Times Blog “Hitting my head on the desk” along with others such as Brad Delong and Yves Smith (of the website Naked Capitalism) have been pointing out over and over and over again that the policies being pursued by the very important people in charge are and will continue to make things worse. However the response of the very important people has been to continue the policies, all the while loudly denouncing any opposing view. The professor is grimly reminded of doctors in the 16th century who as their patient got weaker and weaker kept bleeding them because that is what you do damnit – it’s in the book, until the patient died. (It must be noted that this was normally a problem for the upper classes, the poor simply either got better or died sans any doctoring at all).
Now eventually medicine discovered things like germs and ether and ways of treating the patient that would not kill them outright but it was a long hard slog. People’s reputations were at stake and a little thing like human suffering has never been important enough when the right people’s reputations are at stake. The evil prick Celine writing under his real name Destouches in his PHD thesis for medial school (he was a medial doctor in real life) told the story of an Austrian doctor who suggested to the other doctors that maybe they should was their damn hands after doing autopsies before examining women who had just given birth. Not only did the surgeons resist the idea they actively sabotaged doctor’s experiment. He was right of course but that didn’t matter, the surgeons knew they were right and weren’t going to let a little thing like the facts get in the way.
Which I suspect is what is going on here. Neo-liberal (god what a name) economics which is mostly Adam Smith with modern spelling has a strong element of morality about it. Namely government Debt and taxation are always bad and that the free market is the bestest and purest form of economics and so anything that falls away from the free market is to be shunned.
This isn’t science this is dogma and is proving about as useful as dogma can be under such circumstances. Worse the useless. If it was useless it would be better. These policies are doing real harm.
The killing this is that there are things that can be done, ideas that have a) been around and b) been proven by real life but since they dare to suggest that the free market doesn’t always bring out the bestest and purest result, they are shunned. I suppose at some point things will get so bad that in a fit of self-preservation changes to the existing system will be made (see New Deal) but the important people will, from the instant the emergency recedes, demand that the polices that saved their ass be scrapped. Their anger at the changes instensifed by a) they worked and more importantly b) said changes made them look bad and for important people that is the unforgiveable sin.
One more note: Cheering death and booing gay people in the army. Way to stay classy GOP. Next debate all the canidates will try to kick a puppy, the winer being the one with the most distance.
