From: EvMick@aol.com
Date: Fri Sep 12 1997 - 18:46:37 MDT
I
> Course no one would be in Control...and if you screwed up you GET
> screwed...(mother nature is a bitch)..but the Fed hasn't impressed
> me...seems like they cause more problems than they cure...just skew
> the cause and effect relationship so NOONE knows what's going on.
In response to my quote above you say the following. I find I must disagree
with some of what you say and will thus itemize incrementally.
> Why would you say this? Before we had the "Fed" controlling
things and things were based on "hard" money or Gold there were
periods of wild inflation when there was plenty of God and periods of.....>
This is called the business cycle. The only time it really gets screwed up
is when government gets involved heavily...such as when the Spainish looted
the new world of it's native american (see i'm being politically correct)
refined gold and carried it back to the homeland in treasure ships...this
caused massive inflation to the Spanish Economy...such that some would argue
that Spain never recovered.
> wild deflation when Gold became scarce. Such wild fluctuations often
totally devastated the economy and was very unfair to some and gave
way to much to others arbitrarily based on the Gold supply.>
The early fluctuations that I beleive you are referring to were called
"Panics" at the time...and although they were somewhat uncomfortable they
were by no means the problem you present...to get to the Great Depression it
took truly ingenious meddling by the Federal Government...as depected in
works by Milton Freidman...and as I mentioned...mother nature is a
bitch...she has no concept of "fair"..but her laws are inviolate...the laws
of economics no less than the laws of physics. And who gave you the divine
right to judge who has too much and who has too little...Karl Marx? "From
each according to his ability ...to each accroding to his need?...great
system for ants and bees.
> For the last 15 or so years things have been unbelievably
stable with a very consistent small rate of inflation, which is the
ideal. Thanks, largely to the Fed leaders,>
as instituted by the Regan Administration...in the 80's
>Volker and Greenspan
during this time. Of course there have been times when the Fed
screwed up, but even these times were fare better than when money was
"hard" and no one controlled it.>
I don't beleive this is so. As referenced abov.
>Sure money is an invention. It's a token that represents an
amount of work or capital.>
I'm not sure i can agree entirely...by capital do you mean wealth? Money is
a store of wealth...it's great utility being that of making said wealth
portable.
> It's value is roughly the total ammount of
work we can all do or our capital divided by the total amount of
dollars available. >
see above. Dollars are merely a denomination...meaning some specific measure
of Gold i beleive. It's no accident that the concept of money was
independently discovered many places and times and history...and they all
eventually gravitated toward some scarce...but not TOO
scarce..commodity...Gold proved to be ideal..rare..but not TOO
rare...portable..and permanent....The VALUE of gold was a market decesion.
> To be fair to all, especially from one generation
to the next, this value should remain fairly constant or slightly
inflationary.>
I disagree...your..or my...concept of "fair" may be condeming future
generations to poverty..early death...or horrible to contemplate...hours and
hours of TV vieewing. Is it "fair' to make a whole generation dependent? Or
is the incentive to work, innovate and invent more fair?
>This requires some kind of control over how many
dollars there are, especially since the total amount of work that can
be done and the ammount of work we all want to be done in any given
year is so dynamic and growing.>
You assume that the morons in washington have a clue as to what is going on
and that is indeed their goal. I'm sure everyone has uncounted tales of
sub-optimium situations caused and prepetuated by government idiotcy. If the
situation were subject to individual control....it would be fixed
immediately...but since it must be "blessed" by some beauracy...delays and
politically motivated "solutions" abound.
Being in the Transportation Industry I see this every damn day...situations
too numerous to enumerate. But one example will suffice. Size and weight
limits...this has it's genesis in the Government's involvement with Rail
Roads early on..To make a long story short...rather than let Free Enterprise
take its course government interferred...again and again and again...further
deviating the course of natural development.
Now due to government meddling we have 70 foot long 80,000 pound behomonths
sharing inadequate roadways at highway speeds with tiny four-wheelers...If
government had not meddled the situation would be far diferent.
Government is big...it rules by force. When it makes mistakes (frequently)
they are big mistakes...then it compounds the repeatedly trying to make it
all better.
Absent government individuals make small mistakes...They screw up...they die
(perhaps...if it's a severe enough screw up)...and others learn from their
mistake.
No one learns from government mistakes....least of all government...all we do
is suffer.
Harry Brown said something like "Government will break your leg...give you a
crutch...then claim credity for providing you with the ability to walk".
EvMick
Montgomery Alabama.
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