SUPPLY AND DEMAND. ECONOMICS. I DEMAND THAT YOU SUPPLY ME WITH MORE, WELL IT DOESN'T MATTER. MORE IS ALWAYS BETTER!

 

 

 

 

THEORY:

Economics is a tool to fool the general public into believing that their governments actually know how to run a country.

HYPOTHESIS:

The subject of economics was created to give the illusion that people can be in control of their finances because the government has the interests of its citizens at heart.  

 

    JUST A LITTLE BACKGROUND STORY

I don’t understand economics. I took a course in my undergraduate studies in one of those huge lecture halls where I didn’t know anyone, or anything.  After a while, I was so lost, I gave up. Don’t judge. I was 19 years old. I went to class because if I didn’t, I’d get in trouble. You were only allowed three absences, so my body was there. I don’t know where I left my mind.

Shockingly, I did not do well on the midterm. I remember was that I had to get a 74 on the final in order to pass. I wasn’t totally stupid. I knew this would be a tough class, so, I had taken it as pass/fail. The college allowed you two pass/fails in your four years. I had never failed a class in my life. And if I had gotten a D, it was in that math/logic course. Although I’m pretty sure I somehow managed to eke out a C.  Anyway, to keep my index (grade point average) from suffering, I decided this was where I’d take the pass. It kind of sounds like a game show these days, but trust me, it wasn’t even.

For the first time in my life, I knew that the only way I could possibly pass was to cheat. (I’m still embarrassed that I did this, but I couldn’t have handled failure back then.) The old lecture halls were such that you could see the desk/chair of the person sitting next to you or right below you. I figured they had to know more than I. So that was my plan. Obviously the teacher had enough experience to know there were students like me in the course, so she had two tests prepared. Holy Crap. I had to figure out who had the same test I did and was in close enough in proximity to copy.

Long story short, I had to copy from the person who was sitting one row down and two seats over. Well, at least my vision was better back then, but it wasn’t easy and it was my only shot.

The Kicker! I did get exactly 74, and the person I copied from, got a 72. Apparently, a higher power was rooting for me and I miscopied a wrong answer into a right one.

This has little to do with what I’m going to write about. Those of you who follow me, are prepared for these digressions.

It does prove my statement that I know nothing about economics. Do you believe me now?

 

THE ECONOMIC STATE OF OUR COUNTRY

Obviously, I am not qualified to make any statements about this. However, that has never stopped me from giving an opinion before, and it’s not going to stop me now.

 

DOES ANYONE REALLY UNDERSTAND ECONOMICS?

The short answer is no. I believe, that only a handful of people truly do. They are the ones who run the world. They also have made economic theory so confusing that the rest of us don’t have any idea as to what is really going on. Sorry Allan. Not even our accountants.

However, in the past, some of it was fairly simple. Like the law of supply and demand. Has that changed? I doubt it. At the present time, they just like to ignore it.

So.?

Please explain to me why companies like Starbucks, K-Mart, the Gap, Macy’s, Borders Books, Barnes and Noble, Office Depot, Walgreen’s, 7-Elven and Target, to name a few, kept expanding?  I can’t remember all of them, but they kept building new stores in the same neighborhoods. My friends and I would ask, “Like what is wrong with them? Do they think we can support this many –blankety blank, stores?”

Somewhere in each of those companies,  the economic genius had formulas as to: how many people lived in the area, how much money they made, how far they would drive and whatever else they needed to figure out if another store could be supported.

Obviously, if they’d have asked us, we would have told them “like, what?” and perhaps some of them might still be in business, or have not built stores only to close them down and fire the employees.

HOW DID THAT SHIT HAPPEN?

Beats the hell out of me. Unless failing was their plan. Huh? That doesn’t make any sense at all. Greed? Well, that makes sense, but it still doesn’t account for how the formulas failed and they had to close up so many stores or go out of business. That must have hurt. Yeah, but who?

WHO GETS HURT THE MOST?

The people who are now out of work. What happens to all the people who had jobs and then, poof, they’re gone. And if you check the unemployment data, you’ll know it’s pretty bad. As far as I can tell, the large construction companies were the only ones who made out. But, that would be the people at the top in management, because I know a lot of guys who actually WORK construction, and they can’t get enough employment.

 

I love our government. They’re like, “It’s the Democrats fault that the economy isn’t growing. They just don’t understand economics”. So the Republican’s blame the Democrats for ruining the economy, by giving poor people money and wanting to raise taxes, instead of giving business the laws to do what they want, and let the money trickle down.”

I’m not sure whose pockets the money trickled into, but I’m guessing it wasn’t yours.

NOW WHAT?

 Both parties are saying they are going to fix it. Of course when I say “government” I am referring to the two delightful parties that are BOTH responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. And they even have the gall to want us to believe that they can fix it. I’m guessing that they have as good an understanding of economics as I do.

And that is accounting for their “economic advisors.” The same ones who no doubt told K-Mart to keep expanding.

THIS LEADS ME TO WHAT I SEE AS A FUNDAMENTAL FLAW IN CAPITALISM, BUT PLEASE DON’T TELL ME I’M A COMMUNIST. I’M NOT. I’M A LOGICIAN WITHOUT A PARTY.

Another Digression:

After I had graduated from college, I still wanted to learn. It was probably around 1972 when I took a course in my neighborhood in a continuing ed. program. I can’t remember the name of the class and I’m pretty sure I didn’t finish it, but I did read the book, Wages, Price and Profit by Karl Marx.

What I remember of it, {which isn’t that much}, is his point about profit and how it would be the death of capitalism.

 

He wrote about how companies believed that they must keep at least a certain profit margin to be doing well and growing. This is not true. You can have a small margin, you don’t have to keep growing and you can be flexible in your goals. That seems to make sense.

If you don’t even try to listen to the news{ like I try not to listen, since it only riles me up}, you still manage to hear that there has been no growth in the economic index (whatever that is) and that such and such company did not meet their projections for growth during the last fiscal period.

What Exactly Does that mean?

Let’s put on our thinking caps boys and girls. How much profit do you need to make? Beats me. And where does that profit go? Well, probably to the big salaries the bosses make and maybe if they are traded on the market, to shareholders.  On the surface, if you are the head of the company or a big shareholder, that’s a good deal. If you’re not? Then what.

We all know the answer to that one. Massive layoffs. No jobs. Unhappy people. Angry people. A people divided.  Do you remember when AT & T fired over 40,000 employees because they weren’t doing well, but gave their CEO, I think, a 40 million dollar bonus? Yeah. Its times like these that I think Karl wasn’t quite so crazy.

 

HOW CAN COMPANIES AND GOVERNMENTS KEEP GROWING?

This is where I actually get to my point. Yee Ha!! 

They cannot. If we look back at history, we see that every civilization has had a rise and a fall. And I believe that is part of the nature of the Universe.

Any living thing has a limited period of growth and then a decline. And we know what happens after decline, but I’m not going to say it here.

yay. Where does the guy on top go?

Nothing can keep on growing. It is ridiculous to expect it to. (There’s my favorite word). Again, I will try to use plain logic. I’m trying to think of an example. I’ll need a minute and my husband is asleep so I can’t ask for help.

Let’s try this one. It is ridiculous, but let’s imagine that you can’t actually see it because you’re blind, you know like in total denial. Okay?

You own a boat building business that supplies boats to the town along the lake. Imagine no other towns, no other lakes, and no other people than those already there.  You’re a fairly isolated community.

Your goal is to build as many boats as you can, so you can be very rich. So you build your boats and you sell them to the people in town because they need to go out on the lake to get around. Business is booming and you are making more boats than you thought possible. There is no competing factory. Lucky you.  Now, more than half the people in town are working for you to build the boats because of supply and demand, and now you’re the only industry there and the people who live in town need money to live. Also, they’d still like to buy a boat. The American Dream. The town depends on your for its existence.

Now, let’s imagine this story to its end. Everyone in town, now has a boat. Okay, almost everyone. There is no longer any room for them to go very far on the lake because of the congestion.

Since no one needs any more boats, you keep laying people off because you can’t afford their salaries. What do they do? There are no other businesses for them to work at any more. They would sell the only expensive item they own, but it’s a boat and everyone already has one.

You, the boat builder, may still well have a lot of money from when business was good, but there is very little left in town for you to spend it on. And now, people have the nerve to be asking you for money. Just because you have it.

Maybe one morning everyone gets up and finds that you has abandoned the town. Took your money and ran. Who could blame you? The town is dead.

They boarded up the windows of the closed shops and try and figure out what to do now.

I’ll end here. You get the idea. And actually. I see where I got the idea without even knowing it. Isn’t it great how the unconscious works?

Norwich CT. was a two industry town. One of them was called Electric Boat. The town was right next door to Groton CT, where the nuclear subs were stored and maybe built. Who remembers.

 

Anyway, when peace with Russia came, no one needed more submarines and electric boat folded. And so did the little town of Norwich because more than half the people made their livings there.

My mom and her two sisters lived in Norwich, so I remember a bit about what happened.

 

HAVING REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS, EVEN WHEN THEY HURT.

Let’s face it. Our economies, and I’m speaking for most of the entire Earth at this moment, are unlikely to experience any major growth spurts that are going to help us.

When the politicians tell us they can fix this, well, maybe they can fix it for the already rich. They sure as hell aren’t going to be able to do anything for the struggling middle class, nor the already extremely poor.

What happens when you have something that grows aggressively?  It ultimately destroys itself. If you don’t agree, think about cancer.

In our society, we have the “Haves” and the “Have Nots”. Are the “Haves” willing to give to the “Have Nots”? You know their answers.

We “Have” because we worked hard, and made sacrifices and if you work hard, you too can be a “Have”. It you’re a “Have Not”, you’re to blame. You didn’t try hard enough, work hard enough, struggle enough so it’s your fault. Or maybe it’s because you’re an immigrant and don’t speak English. Sorry. I had to throw that in.

 

Why should the government give you money when it’s your fault that you don’t have any?

Okay. Let’s go back a step and see why they don’t have any. You Fuckers have to keep your profit margins high and keep growing so you keep laying off workers and then there are no customers for your services or products so you lay off more people. 

CONCLUSION:

The people, at least in America are so desperate that they are willing to believe any bullshit you throw at them.

Does anyone have the courage to say that this is a problem that maybe we can’t fix?

I do. But then, I’d never want to be a part of the government. For obvious reasons. Although I am qualified. I cheated on a test.

 

 

 

        Thank You for Reading. I know. This was a LONG one.