The Naked Economy
May 24th, 2009 by Grandpa OddballCopyright © GetOddNews and Grandpa Oddball May 24, 2009. All rights reserved.
Propaganda
This where the analogy to emperor’s new clothes fairy tale is most relevant. Like the emperor, who was convinced that his imaginary clothing was made of the finest and rarest of cloth, we have been convinced by the free trade lobby that the chimera of laissez-faire free trade produces a stable, vibrant and growing economy.
This propaganda takes many forms but the most insidious is the claim that the transition from an industrial based economy to a service based economy is a good thing. What nonsense! At no time in the recorded history of mankind (and probably in prehistory as well) has this state of affairs been true. A complete history refuting this absurd claim is provided by David S. Landes in his book “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
Just how absurd is this claim? Well consider the history of the Spanish empire. To quote; “Let London manufacture those fabrics of hers to her heart’s content; Holland her chambrays: Florance her cloth; the Indies their beaver and vicuns; Milan her brocades; Italy and Flanders their linens, so long as our capital can enjoy them. The only thing it proves is that all nations train journeyman for Madrid and that Madrid is the queen of parliament’s, for all the world serves her and she serves nobody.” Sound familiar? Look at what happened to the Spanish economy as a result of this folly.
An alternate form of this silly nonsense is sometimes advanced as “Don’t worry about trade deficits after all Asia is providing us with useful goods in exchange for paper printed with a picture of George Washington on it“. Just how short sighted can you get?
Pages:
«« previous page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 next page »»
Tags: Economics, free trade, politics
this article with others.
[...] is an interesting question. For fifty plus years we have modified our basic economic system via tax and tariff policies, encouraged misguided free trade policies, gutted our anti-trust laws, [...]
[...] a Reply: Name (required): Mail (will not be published) (required): Website: Comment (required) …The Naked Economy GetOddNewsThe economy has no clothes. Indeed it's an illusion that sucks, as my children would say. So what's [...]
[...] regulations but the advocates of more regulation seem to have fallen into the same pit as the free trade advocates. Economists and idealists frequently propose and create regulatory systems based upon how they [...]