U.S. Economy Lagging, Dragging, Sagging, Flagging

Last week’s Carlyle Capital collapse and Friday’s Bear Stearns meltdown offered further proof that the U.S. economy is in deep doo-doo and that the doo-doo is getting deeper.

George DUHbya (yes, it’s spelled with a capital DUH) Bush demonstrated once again just how far out of touch with reality he is when he said of the economy, "It's important not to overcorrect, because when you overcorrect, you end up in a ditch." Had the First Fool been paying attention, he’d know that the economy has been in a ditch for quite some time, and that it’s sliding inexorably along that increasingly rocky channel toward a cliff.

The bottom half of the middle class can tell you how tough the economy has become. Rising prices and the difficulties of making mortgage or rent payments, putting food on the table, and obtaining health care are the standards by which they judge.

Even more aware of the economy’s inadequacies are the members of the leisure class at the low end of the economic food chain. They judge the economy by the same standards used by the middle class, but in addition, they have a legitimate argument in that, in many ways, the economy has bypassed them completely. For some of them—perhaps for many of them—the underground economy becomes a viable option.

Few people outside of the privileged class argue that the economy is doing just fine. While members of the economically disadvantaged classes mostly agree that the economy is seriously out of whack, they have no idea when—or even if—things will get better.

If Bush has his way—and for some twisted reason he almost always does—the economy will never improve. His tortured logic tells him (yet another example of why information obtained through torture is unreliable) that as long as the wealthiest few percent are getting wealthier, the rest of us don’t matter. Thus far, his approach to remedying our broken economy ensures that it stays broken. Preemptive wars and open-ended occupations are not the solutions. Tax rebates funded by future tax returns are not the solution. A taxpayer-funded bailout of investment bankers and other sub-prime mortgage lenders is not the solution. Bush’s strategy of punishing the victims and rewarding the victimizers is not the solution.

So, what is the solution? To get at that answer, we need to develop a clearer picture of the problem. As I understand it, the problem is twofold. On one hand you have manufacturers, middle men, and merchants, all of whom complain that sales have stalled because consumers aren’t buying due to lack of discretionary income or, in many cases, lack of any income. On the other hand you have middle class and lower class consumers, most of whom cite unemployment, under-employment, stagnant wages, and rising prices as their main reasons for not spending.

What if there was a solution that would simultaneously satisfy the needs of both groups? Well, there is such a solution, and the idea for it was first posited in a short sci-fi story some 30 or 40 years ago. I’ve forgotten the story’s title and who its author was, but the story’s basic premise was that endless cycles of production and consumption are the essentials of a stable economy. To achieve that economic stability, the author had his protagonist fully engaged in consumption and locked into a quota system. The only things the protagonist could look forward to were a series of “promotions” signified by corresponding reductions of his consumption quota.

By now the possible solution to our economic woes that I’ve been hinting at should be obvious to you. If businesses want more paying customers, they should hire more people and pay them a living wage. As an alternative, they could simply pay people to do nothing but consume, thereby avoiding the expense of paying benefits and the necessity of providing them with a workplace.

If they aren’t willing to do one or the other, they should just shut up and suffer in silence.

Out With the Old, In With the New (Version 63.2)

At the beginning of every year, I do a quick take on the effects of major events that transpired during the previous year, and this year is no exception. The main advantage to taking these backward glances is that it helps detect emerging trends in time to avoid—or take advantage of—their consequences. That, and for the rush I get, not at all unlike the rush I got (and this harkens back to my days as a long-haul trucker) whenever I crossed a Texas border—any Texas border—and saw Texas receding in my rearview mirror.

2007 was a net loser for billions of Gaia’s children. Iraqis didn’t fare well, nor did Pakistanis, Afghanis, the people of Darfur, the US military, the American lower and middle classes, the poor of almost every nation. Polar bears, whales, seals and sea lions, salmon and many other marine species, penguins, wolves, and various other wildlife species took a big hit, too. However, the top 20% of US income earners did better than okay, and the top 1% did especially well (as they always do).

Like many of her denizens, Gaia didn’t do so well, either. Storms raged, wildfires burned, rainforests continued to disappear, ice sheets continued to melt, the global temperature continued to rise. One sick puppy, Gaia. But, like every living organism, Gaia reacts to intrusive species in ways that tend to limit the damage they can do—hence, global climate change.

If there were any positives in 2007, I missed them all. The housing market tanked, the quality of education slid a little farther down the hill, air travel got a little suckier, energy prices escalated, the cost of healthcare went up, but the availability of healthcare didn’t. Consumer prices rose across the board, the trade deficit increased, the national debt grew larger, and consumer debt reached an all-time high.

Although the competency of government leaders has been slipping for years, every year of the Bush misadministration has set a new record for ineptitude. Just when I think that things can’t possibly get any worse, they do. 2007 saw further erosions of Constitutional protections and civil liberties.

As if to add outrageous insult to grievous injury (and I take this as a personal affront) 2007 terminated some gifted writers, among them Robert Anton Wilson, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Norman Mailer, Molly Ivins, Art Buchwald—and these are only the ones I’ve heard about; no doubt there are others. The collective loss of these talented individuals impoverishes us all.

But enough about last year; it’s history. We should be thinking about the year immediately ahead, and about what role we’ll play—if any—in the unfolding of next year’s history. It helps to make a New Year resolution or two (or ten, or twenty), which are instrumental in laying the groundwork for future accomplishments. I make several every year and, surprisingly, more of them stick than don’t.

Without further procrastination and with no excuses or apologies, these are my resolutions for 2008:

• Read a little less, write a little more; (a) post to Petey’s Pipeline Blog more often; (b) resurrect Petey’s Pipeline E-zine (again); (c) finish a couple of e-book projects, one of which I started more than four years ago; (d) finish a minimum of six of the more than two dozen “flash” fiction projects that currently exist only as vague ideas somewhere near the back of my mind; (e) write more book reviews

• Ride my bike more often

• Make . . . whoa! Stop, already! Enough is enough.

If I try to put any more on my plate I’ll need a bigger plate. And we all know how that’s gonna end. Not well, I assure you.

It’s okay—good, in fact—to make a New Year resolution. A proper resolution provides exactly the right amount of incentive to help you reach your goal. Just make your resolution a realistic one if you want to keep it.