Failed “leaders” and decision makers hold YOU responsible for inflation and other economic woes. And for destroying the climate.
According to “common wisdom” (sic), economic problems are caused by the government or by workers or consumers. It’s never the fault of giant corporations. You know them: the businesses and people who buy politicians and make policy and also control media and decide what gets discussed.
Those people. They’re innocent. Always.
Corporations gouge on Epipens and insulin — things people need to stay alive. Oil companies destroy the planet by pumping endless oil and never, ever pay a dime for the devastation their actions trigger: record breaking storms, wildfires and god knows what else. No, the government and the taxpayer pays to fix things up. Or lets the individuals simply suffer the damage with no meaningful help.
But I’ve often heard, over the years, ordinary people are saving too little or too much, causing problems. Not buying enough when they don’t have money or creating too much debt when they borrow and spend.
Oh, and the climate apocalypse is caused by ordinary people because they won’t reduce their carbon footprints. Not by ExxonMobil or Shell or BP.
I think Trump speaks for everyone in the ruling class when he says “I take no responsibility whatsoever.”
Well, I hold them responsible. More important, young people hold them responsible. When the childish, greedy and stupid “adult” leaders are dead (and sooner is better), the next generation will belatedly get a chance to try to clean up their crap.
The Free Market Crap
When is comes to inflation, it’s actually simple: giant corporations — near or actual monopolies — set the prices. Yes, they do. The price of insulin isn’t set by diabetics. Diabetics have no choice; they MUST buy it, if they can.
We hear about the amazing “free market,” which perfectly balances supply and demand — or at least does so “in the long run” — years after many diabetics are broke and dead. But that market doesn’t apply when workers won’t work for the dismal offerings made by companies. The Great Resignation, like everything, is the fault of ordinary people. People who refuse to work.
Under the “common wisdom”, supply and demand meet and everything is fine. Corporations offer a salary and benefits, and if they are insufficient, they raise those offers to meet the demand. But the corporations refuse, take no responsibility for their cheapness and greed, and blame the workers. The free market doesn’t apply when the corporations refuse to pay up. When it comes to labor or the environment, the invisible hand never picks up the check.
I’ll say it again: the responsibility for high prices is with the people who raise them. The cause of high prices is that companies can get away with raising them. Their ability to evade responsibility is reinforced by media and lackeys who speak the language of the price gougers.
Economics is not a science. I have an MBA and a degree in economics. You can easily see from their record of failure after failure to explain anything, and failure to predict anything about the economy, that economists know nothing.
Not a damn thing.
Let’s hold the people who are responsible responsible. The oil company executives. The politicians who execute the policies demanded by their wealthy funders. The media who parrot the same nonsense they keep hearing from failed “leaders.”
Ordinary people may continue to suffer financially. The Earth’s climate may continue to be destroyed. But none of us need to listen to, repeat the arguments by, or feel the slightest respect for those who are stealing from us, bullying us, poisoning the planet and then — insult to injury — blaming us for THEIR crimes.
My demand is this: those who are responsible must take responsibility. Period. And if not, they are dead to me.
