“Our current cultural politics are organized by the obsolete culture war, which has put secular liberals on one side and religious conservatives on the other,” argued columnist David Brooks. But he contends that the more pressing cultural battle should be restoring economic morality. The goals should be to make the U.S. again a producer economy, not a consumer economy, and to return to financial self-restraint, large and small. “A crusade for economic self-restraint would have to rearrange the current alliances and embrace policies like energy taxes and spending cuts that are now deemed politically impossible,” Brooks wrote. “But this sort of moral revival is what the country actually needs.”
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26 Comments
Restor economic morality. Ok.
“embrace policies like energy taxes”???????
WTF does that have to do with morality, economic or otherwise?
Restore economic morality.
Okay, lets start with removing Obama’s plans to continue the policy of placing some financial empires in tier 1 status, meaning too big to fail. No business should be too big to fail. We’ve been bailing out these same businesses since 1994. No regulation is going to change that if tier 1 is not dropped.
Lets stop the practice of allowing the top 1% of the country to make the rules the other 99% of this country have to follow. Lets stop the greed that caused the financial meltdown, and put millions out of work, while the usual CEO suspects gave themselves millions while losing billions and taking taxpayer handouts. Lets make sure our children, you know, those leaders of tomorrow, get the health care they should be entitled to under any circumstances. Lets bring up on charges the same CEOs who ran this economy into the ground and are now sitting in government offices telling the rest of us what we should do. Lets make da*m sure our “elected officials”, Democrat and Republican, are voted out of office and find honest people not afraid to work “Of the people, by the people, and for the people”, because we sure as he11 ain’t got them now.
No business should be too big to fail.
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They should be allowed to fail, just like any other business. Otherwise they learn nothing. See results of the financial bailouts and likely the auto bailouts in the future.
We are out a poop load of money either way.
Reading Brooks’ article, it appears that his call for a return to economic morality is a call to economic conservatism, although he couldn’t probably say that in the NYT. In doing a word search, I ran into a compelling article, although not specifically on point, close enough that I think it relevant. It may annoy some, but I don’t care.
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“In Judeo-Christian America one finds the idea of equality before God and the law, but not government forced economic equality. Modern European culture has stressed the value of economic equality rather than Liberty, and their governments unjustly enforce the principle. This has led to the failed European inventions of Socialism and Communism. Socialists in America have been lured into this failed European idea of social justice. Socialism is a failure in that it unjustly suppresses human creativity by excessively taxing away its rewards, and by foolishly giving economic reward to many who, even though mentally and physically able, fail to honor their Divine privilege and duty to work creatively.
Thus, Socialism is a dual insult to God-given creativity. Communism was much worse in that it also dishonored the sacredness of human life and liberty. Communism was the inevitable result of separating not just church from state, but God from state. Communism dishonored God’s gifts of Life, Liberty and Creativity. European cultures have historical ties to authoritarian and totalitarian systems dating back to the Roman Empire. Even European Christianity was, for a time, contaminated by its links to authoritarian rule.
American Judeo-Christian Culture, on the other hand, has been linked to honoring Life, Liberty and Creativity from the outset; deriving its wisdom from the lights of reason, common sense, and both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament Christian Bible.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/09/the_judeochristian_values_of_a.html
The fear of failure is powerful. If you know you could lose everything, you tend to make wiser decisions, but if you know the Gov.’s going to bail you out- what do you stand to lose?
The O’BAMA administration has show that they are penny-wise, but pound-foolish..
Sure, they take care of small programs with cuts and restraint, then turn around and spend foolishly on huge programs that will lead to further deficit spending, increased taxation and the reducted value of the dollar.
I agree with Walker on the giving tier one status to big companies. If they fail, they fail – no need to bail them out. Obsolescense is the natural law of economics. If a company does not re-invent itself to survive, then the taxpayer shouldn’t have to bail them out.
Shoulde be Obsolescence not Obsolescense.
Law of the jungle economics. What if a substantial portion of the people just stood up and refused to live in the jungle?
What if a substantial portion of the people just stood up and refused to live in the jungle?
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They would still be standing in the jungle.
What if a substantial portion of the people just stood up and refused to live in the jungle?
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There would be many obese leopards.
American Judeo-Christian Culture, on the other hand, has been linked to honoring Life, Liberty and Creativity from the outset; deriving its wisdom from the lights of reason, common sense, and both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament Christian Bible.”
==================================================
That’s the biggest crock I’ve read in quite awhile: You want to use the bible to justify the Capitalistic system in America? Then you should go back and reread the bible. Fact: 1% of the population in this country controls the other 99%. Don’t believe me? The why are the people who directly caused to financial mess working for the government and suggesting that regulations not be put in place, in order to maintain the status quo? Why is taxpayer money being used to bailout empires “too big to fail”, while the CEOs are giving themselves millions after losing billions? Find that in the bible for me, outlander. Show me in the bible where it says it’s okay to scr*w the little people out of house and home in the name of profit? Show me where in the bible it says it’s okay for an empire “too big to fail” to justify refusing to pay people for doing an honest days work? Tell me where in the bible it says it’s okay for these financial empires to take insurance out on it’s employees, hoping they die so the company can make a profit off the “dead peasants?”
Capitalism, as practiced in this country, is an insult to every working human being.
We’ll never see eye to eye on this matter at any time, so consider my questions rhetorical, because your answers will be nothing but capitalistic propaganda.
Agreed. The bush consumer society was an abject failure, along with a ‘global economy’. Get back to basics.
Penny wise, pound foolish. Is that like worrying and fretting for the 20% of the financial collapse attributed to home buyers and fannie/freddie and ignoring the 80% caused by corporate greed?
Time to get back to anti-trust enforcement and regulations.
I don’t expect you to think or read for understanding these days Walker. And a mistake a lot of small minds make is that when someone posts an article, they agree with every line in it. It is sometimes intended as a springboard for discussion among those who think instead of react like Pavlov’s dog.
Sorry Walker. That was probably a little too snotty.
Outlander, I stated an opinion. If you want to delve in and prove me wrong, feel free, but your the one who posted the article, and evidently agreed with it (why else would you post it?) and I’m the one who blasted it. Maybe my last paragraph was over the top, but I find using the bible to justify capitalism, as practiced in this country, way over the top.
Remember: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20)
“and evidently agreed with it (why else would you post it?)”
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Sigh… See above.
“We need to restore economic morality!”.
Eh?
First we need to stop the fundamental problem of making money from nothing. Then, maybe, we can take care of the residuals. If you make money actually have value and back it by something, then inflationary spending wouldn’t happen so easily. I mean, if I had the ability to print my own money and give other countries IOU’s, yeah, I’d be rich enough to fund never-ending wars and a welfare state too.
I’d be large and in charge…until someone called in my IOU’s. Ooops.
Until then, this country is just aching for a breaking.
Iceland still wonders what happened to them. Ten years from now, if the Fed isn’t audited…we’ll still be asking where all those trillions went.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/6270160/One-year-on-questions-about-Icelands-banking-collapse-still-remain.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/04/world-bank-power-shift
Amerikkka: The new 3rd world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX3UqY8KZpU&feature=related
No corporation should be too big to be allowed to fail. Those that approach that definition shold be forced to break up into smaller entities just like Standard Oil and Ma Bell were. We used to have laws to that effect, but they somehow got repealed. Let’s unrepeal ‘em and bust some of these “too big to be allowed to fail” corporation down to manageable size.
Jed
Posted October 8, 2009 at 11:38 am | Permalink
No corporation should be too big to be allowed to fail. Those that approach that definition shold be forced to break up into smaller entities just like Standard Oil and Ma Bell were. We used to have laws to that effect, but they somehow got repealed. Let’s unrepeal ‘em and bust some of these “too big to be allowed to fail” corporation down to manageable size.
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Or years ago, Sherman Anti-Trust laws should have been enforced to prevent the endless corporate mergers and acquisitions which led to the gigantic corporations we see today.
Enforce existing laws, what a concept!
“American Judeo-Christian Culture, on the other hand, has been linked to honoring Life, Liberty and Creativity from the outset; deriving its wisdom from the lights of reason, common sense, and both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament Christian Bible.”
Let’s take a closer look at this statement. I will agree that the “New England” of pre-revolution days leaned heavily on “Protestant” Christian culture with Calvinist influences.
But as our “American” culture progressed to a revolutionary movement, the historically liberal thinking of our founding fathers relied on enlightenment philosophies that stressed “reason and common sense” and rejected the notion that social justice and morality were wholly dependent on Biblical authority.
I grant the reference to American Culture being “linked” to a Judeo-Christian world-view. However, I think history shows that the strengths of our founding fathers were more secular in origin.
Outlander:
I would have to say that The Judeo-Christian Values of America By Ronald R. Cherry does a considerable disservice to the political philosophies of Socialism and Communism. Both philosophies envision the eventual withering away of the need for government. Both rely heavily on the individual to develop their “human creativity” and to expand social justice through economic justice that rewards work and punishes monetary exploitation and speculation.
The problem with using history to make points is that you run the risk of being a “revisionist” or of demonstrating you don’t really know history at all. Mr. Cherry has shown himself I believe to fall in the former category.
Jimbo,
I’d agree with you, except that it’s not so much a matter of enforcement, it’s that monopolies have taken advantage of the Sherman Act’s loopholes and failings, and have the cash to block any attempt to reform and update it. F’rinstance the Sherman Act fails to protect against de facto monopolies and it’s anti-price-fixing and territory agreement provisions are impossible to enforce without an insider (it would have to be a high-ranking exec) whistle-blower coming forward, and executives in corporations are usually GOBC’s.
We currently have huge drug manufacturing conglomerates who achieve total monopolies on specific drugs through abuse of the patent laws. When a patent is about to run out on a high-dollar drug, they simply make a slightly different version of the same thing, patent the new version in such a way as to repatent the older version as well. Often this has nothing to do with improving efficacy; it may be something as simple as a different type of packaging, and they get another 17years monopoly. At the very least they can tie it up with litigation and squeeze another three or four years of premium priced sales out of the old patent. Some of these drugs (which cost pennies per thousand to manufacture, including research costs) are sold for upwards of $500 for a bottle of 30. Those dispensed in hospitals usually go for much more.
One of the tragic results of this system is that drug companies actively discourage any search for cures to disease in favor of lifetime treatments that can net them much more money than a single-dose cure or prevention. Some of the most promising lines of research have been shut down for just this reason. They’ve got us over a barrel and want to keep us there. Other industries use similar tactics to avoid anti-trust prosecutions while maintaining a tight grip on the throat of our economy. And then expect us to bail them out when they overreach.
We need some serious new anti-trust legislation, a means to regulate it and a reform of patent laws. It’s not very likely we’ll get them, wouldn’t you agree?
Jed,
Exactly.
A cure does nothing for a drug manufacturers bottom line.