The Paradox of Thrift: people are saving money, which means consumer spending won't power us out of recession.

A system that depends on people buying stuff they don't need -- and even worse, borrowing the money to do so -- is not a healthy one.

Comments

[RBM]

When the interests of the system is at the other end of the continuum of mainstreet it is time for a shift.

Don't worry though, Mother Nature is closing the gap.

[RecycleBill]

"A system that depends on people buying stuff they don't need -- and even worse, borrowing the money to do so -- is not a healthy one."

I've believed that my entire life.

[Beelzebubba]

grandpa BLZ, who was a sharecropper during the Lesser Depression, advised me never to eat or sell the whole crop. He told me to keep some back for next year. He reminded me that an abundance is only possible if everyone is able to save their seed corn. He told me that in other sectors of the economy that seed corn is put into equities, bonds and used to start businesses. He told me these things were the most important things needed to eliminate poverty. He told me that when government outgrows their breeches and people start to bitch about taxes, they delay taxation by borrowing. He said the borrowing removes the cash flow away from investments that create jobs and paychecks and creates a shortage of both. He told me the name that praxeologists used for this is "crowding out." Wage earners and businesses are crowded out of the economy, creating more poor people like ourselves and unemployment in most other economic sectors. That, he said, is how the government eats our seedcorn. He said he reckoned that was why sheep were happier under the care of themselves than under wolves. I told him he sure was smart to be so goddam poor.

[RBM]

Was grandpa BLZ sheltered and nourished ?

[Beelzebubba]

he sheltered and nourished himself and his family best i can recollect. i went down and re-examined the soil in Turner Co. Georgia a few years back and noticed they were having the same problems that they had 80 years ago...regardless of their attempts to nurture and appease the soil, they all ended up reluctantly surrendering to it, and were placed ceremoniously into the same soil they scratched to make a living from their entire life.

[cheripickr]

Well did I ever tell ye about my grandaddy Phuc? Workin them rice paddies weren't no picnic either.

[Beelzebubba]

warren zevon wrote about the ethnic Chinese Phuc family...spelled Fook...who opened a famous restaurant in London known for beef chow mein and large portions. can i get an ahoooooooo.

[cheripickr]

"His hair was perfect!"