[biztech-discussion] Re: Some interesting articles from the other side
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <biztech-discussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 11:18:36 -0700
The problem with neoconservative economists is that they can sound so logical,
yet the whole
argument doesn't make sense.
For example, he writes...
"Many economic issues are complex, but sometimes a single fact will tell you
all you need to
know. When you know that central planners in the Soviet Union had to set 24
million
prices-and keep adjusting them, relative to one another, as conditions
changed-you realize
that central planning did not just happen to fail. It had no chance of
succeeding from the
outset."
That sounds correct, doesn't it? The USSR collapsed. We all know that.
Therefore "Central
Planning" doesn't work, right?
But if that is true, then how does he explain the US Army? It's based on
central planning.
And the US Army's centralized planning won WWII. Yes, there are tremendous
inefficiencies,
but it works.
Furthermore, the USSR did not fail because of central planning. Stalin's
horrible
dictatorship and the pervasive police state destroyed loyalty and hope in the
government.
The population simply gave up on the government.
There's plenty more examples of wrong arguments in his article. Cheap American
labor and
mass production devastated the European clock industry. Detroit is a rust belt,
due to
cheaper labor elsewhere. And so on.
The general American economic trend of the last 40 years has been a slow
decline of
manufacturing and the conversion of the economy into low-pay service jobs.
America will not
be standing tall again on manufacturing jobs anytime soon, because the US will
not regress
back to a manufacturing economy, just as it will not regress into an agrarian
economy.
The neocons ignore all this. They are trying to score points, to provide
arguments for their
owners. Yes, their owners. The neocon economics professors are paid and hosted
by corps. The
Hoover Institute is at Stanford, and it is sponsored by corporations. That's
why they don't
have to be right. They just have to muddy up the issues.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
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