On Friday, as President Joe Biden signed “An Executive Order Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” he echoed the language of his predecessors. “[C]ompetition keeps the economy moving and keeps it growing,” he said. “Fair competition is why capitalism has been the world’s greatest force for prosperity and growth…. But what we’ve seen over the past few decades is less competition and more concentration that holds our economy back.”
Wow! I want to say something cautious and skeptical in knee-jerk reaction, but I think maybe it’s just time to soak in the fact that, finally we have a man wise in the ways of Washington who is genuinely working to help the American people-- all of them. May God help him succeed and may He frustrate the machinations of those who hope he will fail.
The billionaire marketing stunt today left me yawning. How ho-hum. The media gave it way too much free air time. So, they are going to commercialize space -- so what else is new. All I saw was someone who pays less tax than I do getting free advertising so he can go make more money. And, this is his plan B in case the Earth succumbs to climate disasters. He could be putting billions into saving the planet rather than giving himself an exit plan. Well, maybe we can hope he'll make longer and longer trips away from Earth. Don't think anyone would miss his absence.
The year of my mother’s birth, 1929, everyone in America (& the world) learned that the Stock Market was nothing but high stakes gamble that crapped out. She grew up in abject poverty, hunger & malnutrition in St. Louis. My dad a decade older in Mississippi went off to a CCC camp in 1938 before joining the Marines a year later. With all the efforts of Roosevelt to get the economy rolling again, I suspect WWII is what actually kick-started it.
Which is where I came in during the late 1940s thru the ‘50s when babies & economy were booming again and a man could support a family on his single income buying a car & a house in the ‘burbs. My (new) dad even had discretionary money to buy a Color TV, Stereo Console, Tape Recorder, 8mm Movie Cam, Polaroid Land Cam & other toys for the family. This boom continued thru my young adulthood in the late 1960s & ‘70s where I lived comfortably as a single man on minimum wages jobs & with a partner actually could take off and travel the world.
By 1980 it was taking both partners income to maintain a household with a child settling down at jobs that paid a bit more than minimum wages. And so it went the rest of my life during the 21st Century where I was single & eking by on almost twice the minimum wages. IDK how anyone could have lived on $5.15 per hour in 2000 to $7.50 an hour where it stopped in 2009, while prices for everything still steadily increased over the past decade.
This is the ugly side of Capitalism with most of our national wealth held by a few multi-billionaires while the masses struggle to survive on a pittance, while our legislators collude with the moneyed interests instead of with We the Ppl. (Yes, I may be a Socialist).
Actually, I agree with the economics of Robert Reich who debunks the “trickle down” voodoo economics of Reagan and points out that it should be trickle up, as the masses with discretionary cash could buy more products that would stimulate the economy. And the obscene wealth at the top should be squeezed to pay their fair share of taxes like they did in the time of Eisenhower.
I’m a historian myself and a huge admirer of HCR’s ongoing and daily work, but this edition completely misses the significant role of the late 19th and early 20th century labor movement and the intensifying class conflict that helped define and motivate the Progressive and New Deal era governmental reforms. Where’s a mention of Haymarket, Homestead, Pullman, Lawrence, Seattle, the 1934 general strike wave, Flint and multiple other strikes and mass movements that served to define the decades between 1880 and 1940 as much as the ostentatious wealth and political influence of the Carnegies,the Rockefellers and their political enablers? Where’s mention of the Knights of Labor, the Populists, the Wobblies, the AFL, the CIO in this discussion? I know it’s hard to get everything into a short piece like this but it ends up perpetuating old tropes and old historical distortions that read out of the historical record the key contributions of working people to whatever progressive changes we’ve managed to realize in this country.
"Biden’s speech on Friday reclaims a different theme in our history, that of government protecting individualism by keeping the economic playing field level."
In other words, government regulation and oversight are an essential element to a thriving, free-market, capitalist, economy. The same can be said for maintaining a habitable planet.
Both notions fly in the face of reaganism's"government IS the problem" philosophy that is the core of current Republican political dogma.
One hopes that after the last two examples of first Republican then Democratic responses to the Covid 19 pandemic illustrating the effectiveness of both philosophies that more and more people are becoming aware of the wisdom of the progressive point of view of the role government must play in modern affairs.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Color me a cheerleader for all things competition! I checked my toolbox and found nothing to further this conversation.
However, and not to distract, I discovered that an organization called Four Directions Native Vote has joined forces with another organization called Fair Count in the effort to overcome voter suppression. What I didn't know is that Fair Count is another "arrow" in Stacey Abrams' quiver to advance voting for all disenfranchised people in the country. While listening to a video she put out, another organization, Skoll Foundation, promoted her video. Skoll's mission is to build "a sustainable world of peace and prosperity for all." Anyone with more information to contribute would be most welcome to chime in!
There's a new fire just to the north of where we are wrapping up our "birthday weekend" family gathering. My niece's boyfriend (they are both pilots for Horizon Air) was able to identify not just the four planes (well, three planes and one helicopter) flying out of the Redmond Airport, but realize that he had a friend flying the helicopter. There are small areas of Jefferson County on Level 3 / Level 2 evac notices (leave now, get your stuff ready to leave). There's another new fire to the south with additional evac notices.
I did read (with waning interest) the commentary today. It seems some regular contributors are interested in simply stirring the pot of argument, calling out the Professor for her whiteness, or simply baiting other readers. I have also been subjected to my ever so "reasonable" "conservative" friends challenging all of the "libs" to clearly articulate why voter registration is so hard, and how "we" really believe that "the blacks" are "too dumb to get their documentation together." I firmly believe that there has been an engineered divide in this country, and on a visceral level it has finally worked for me. These people, that I once tried to have discussions with, are just (insert several various profanities, blasphemies, and vulgarities here) idiots who have surrendered their frontal cortexes to their amygdalae and are now just blathering.
Godspeed to President Biden as he tries to undo* the mess that 40 years of Republiqan politics have gotten us into. I'm off to try and remotely coordinate a band rehearsal that will include distribution of music in an outdoor setting.
“Biden’s speech on Friday reclaims a different theme in our history, that of government protecting individualism by keeping the economic playing field level.”
I would add a couple of observations. Capitalism depends on an ever expanding “universe” and the U.S. economy has reached, in a product cycle analogy, the mature phase of business where “sales” level off and decline. That does not necessarily represent a bad thing, but it complicates the macro economics.
Given the overlay of climate change and its impact on where food will be grown, water availability, migrating populations, pollution that exists in every corner of the globe, and the vast economic inequities that exist in this country as well as around the world, innovation and growth need to be viewed with a very different lens.
IMO, the playing field that needs to be leveled in today’s world has more to do with protecting the collective vs. straight up individualism.
The race to consumer space travel by the multi $billionaire trio Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk is an example of what I see as “innovation” and individualism gone astray. Again, IMO they are not “exploring”, they are exploiting. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. More than ever, we need to recognize the difference when applying political solutions and policies.
We do need our president and politicians to recognize the ills of our big businesses and the one way flow of wealth. I listened to one of Robert Reich’s info videos. That if they taxed Bezos as is proposed, Bezos would pay the amount he makes in half of a day! I don’t remember the amount but it was more than I’ll make in a lifetime. That’s ludicrous!
Break up trusts and monopolies, tax these extremely rich vultures, give us working schmoes a chance at a better life. Repair our societal needs.
This letter makes me think we can get back on track!
I'm heartened by the unexpected things President Biden is doing. It's clear he's listening to more progressive voices, including those his administration has hired. But will steps like these make enough of a difference in the short-term (next elections) and help increase the slim Democratic margins?
Thank you for this. In many ways, as you describe it, last Friday’s speech is historic, and inspirational. But it was not well-covered by the media. I am hearing about it from you, in spite of not being inattentive to news. It was not discussed on Sunday news shows, which, if they were not outright interrupted by Virgin and Richard Branson’s replication of an X-15 flight (something which no one I saw happened to mention), they spent most of their time talking about. What I fear most—what Trump and the Republicans of today exploit so thoroughly—is that the gatekeepers of the media, who should focus public attention on what is important, are constantly focusing on the trivial, or on outright delusions. The founders, who seem to have feared popular opinion could be misled at times, expected that at least leaders who would gather together in Congress, representing their different interests, would set aside the noise, and on balance make reasonable decisions, and through the franking privilege, help to moderate delusions, and guide their constituents, as with Edmund Burke’s Speech to the Electors of Bristol. But instead, if they do not outright promote monstrous delusions themselves—which, even if covered in the news with horror, are covered—or react by denouncing delusions and lies, the politicians do not speak of the good they try to do for the public often enough. Or, more accurately, the gatekeepers of the media largely ignore them when they do speak about significant and important policy and legislation. Public opinion is constantly being misled, and Republican leaders, to a level of near-treasonous proportions, seem prepared to exploit the failures of the media, rather than to address them. They seem to be motivated solely by desire for personal power, and the power of their key multimillionaire supporters, against the interests of their own constituents, and the vast majority of the public. Your letter on Biden’s speech is a valuable blow against that tendency, and I will share it. But what can be done to help make news coverage more focused on actual public issues, rather than spectacle or folly?
It is greed, lust for power, that kneecaps us today.
Cooperation with competition will work for a just and sustainable future. The notion of 'sustainable' is fairly critical. We are, again, burning in the West. If we are not placing the environment and sustainable economies in the forefront, we are not succeeding.
As a artist, I have to compete with hundreds and sometimes thousands of others, in order to be accepted into top fairs around the country. I am the producer, buyer, marketing director, sales clerk, janitor and muscle that carries, cleans, puts up and takes down hundreds of pounds of equipment in whatever weather mother nature throws at us. Competition is fierce. I make beadwoven jewelry. Jewelry is often 25 percent of all available art at a fair.
Most art fairs do not allow “buy-sell” items. In this case, they don’t make me compete with items manufactured overseas and sold at very cheap prices; prices I cannot compete with given how labor intensive my medium is. I appreciate that. My work is good; I have won Best of Show, which is rare in the jewelry world. But my prices are high. If they weren’t, I couldn’t make a living.
Biden’s goal is similar- level the playing field, increase honest competition, keep those trying to monopolize the market from being able to control it while also paying attention to consumer needs. Sounds like good governance to protect the economy to me. We have so much to do right now. Rein in predatory corporate practices, protect and re-secure the right to vote, work on regulating carbon emissions, and help those most affected by loss of jobs during the pandemic. And the Delta variant is out there wreaking havoc. I grateful to have a president and his staff capable of multi tasking. Lots of work to do - just like an artist.
There is another type of monopoly emerging in our technical age. The exploitation of data. Some of these big tech companies manage data for smaller companies and then absorb and eviscerate the small company because the swallowing company has all the pertinent data of that small company - customer lists, etc.etc. -- and exploits it for their own benefit many times putting the smaller out of business. It is in these small businesses and start-ups where real innovation happens so we lose a lot when they are stifled.
Hopefully, among the mergers and acquisitions they won't allow is Amazon to swallow MGM here in Hollywood. Big Tech is set to fuck up Hollywood like they have fucked up every other sphere of economic action they invade and destroy. Bezos wants MGM for the same reason the other Tech giants want to grab a studio, to - as he says - redevelop and reimagine all the IP MGM holds" - what that means is recycle every old movie in the MGM library into something "new, yet not so different." That's what happens when monopolies become dominant - they don't want innovation and new stuff, because they don't know how to control and market that. I'm talking about the parochial interests of movies, but it works the same everywhere.
And yes, I will urge you all to buy my books through Amazon, since they offer honest accounting to my publisher, which means honest accounting to me, unlike the bookstore business, whose "accounting" processes make "Hollywood accounting" look like it's the product of angels.
Capitalism, even with open and fair competition, tends to be an extractive philosophy which is destroying the ecosystem in which we used to thrive. Growth is no longer simply or necessarily good.
Wow! I want to say something cautious and skeptical in knee-jerk reaction, but I think maybe it’s just time to soak in the fact that, finally we have a man wise in the ways of Washington who is genuinely working to help the American people-- all of them. May God help him succeed and may He frustrate the machinations of those who hope he will fail.
The billionaire marketing stunt today left me yawning. How ho-hum. The media gave it way too much free air time. So, they are going to commercialize space -- so what else is new. All I saw was someone who pays less tax than I do getting free advertising so he can go make more money. And, this is his plan B in case the Earth succumbs to climate disasters. He could be putting billions into saving the planet rather than giving himself an exit plan. Well, maybe we can hope he'll make longer and longer trips away from Earth. Don't think anyone would miss his absence.
A CENTURY OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
The year of my mother’s birth, 1929, everyone in America (& the world) learned that the Stock Market was nothing but high stakes gamble that crapped out. She grew up in abject poverty, hunger & malnutrition in St. Louis. My dad a decade older in Mississippi went off to a CCC camp in 1938 before joining the Marines a year later. With all the efforts of Roosevelt to get the economy rolling again, I suspect WWII is what actually kick-started it.
Which is where I came in during the late 1940s thru the ‘50s when babies & economy were booming again and a man could support a family on his single income buying a car & a house in the ‘burbs. My (new) dad even had discretionary money to buy a Color TV, Stereo Console, Tape Recorder, 8mm Movie Cam, Polaroid Land Cam & other toys for the family. This boom continued thru my young adulthood in the late 1960s & ‘70s where I lived comfortably as a single man on minimum wages jobs & with a partner actually could take off and travel the world.
By 1980 it was taking both partners income to maintain a household with a child settling down at jobs that paid a bit more than minimum wages. And so it went the rest of my life during the 21st Century where I was single & eking by on almost twice the minimum wages. IDK how anyone could have lived on $5.15 per hour in 2000 to $7.50 an hour where it stopped in 2009, while prices for everything still steadily increased over the past decade.
This is the ugly side of Capitalism with most of our national wealth held by a few multi-billionaires while the masses struggle to survive on a pittance, while our legislators collude with the moneyed interests instead of with We the Ppl. (Yes, I may be a Socialist).
Actually, I agree with the economics of Robert Reich who debunks the “trickle down” voodoo economics of Reagan and points out that it should be trickle up, as the masses with discretionary cash could buy more products that would stimulate the economy. And the obscene wealth at the top should be squeezed to pay their fair share of taxes like they did in the time of Eisenhower.
I’m a historian myself and a huge admirer of HCR’s ongoing and daily work, but this edition completely misses the significant role of the late 19th and early 20th century labor movement and the intensifying class conflict that helped define and motivate the Progressive and New Deal era governmental reforms. Where’s a mention of Haymarket, Homestead, Pullman, Lawrence, Seattle, the 1934 general strike wave, Flint and multiple other strikes and mass movements that served to define the decades between 1880 and 1940 as much as the ostentatious wealth and political influence of the Carnegies,the Rockefellers and their political enablers? Where’s mention of the Knights of Labor, the Populists, the Wobblies, the AFL, the CIO in this discussion? I know it’s hard to get everything into a short piece like this but it ends up perpetuating old tropes and old historical distortions that read out of the historical record the key contributions of working people to whatever progressive changes we’ve managed to realize in this country.
Steve Brier, CUNY Graduate Center
"Biden’s speech on Friday reclaims a different theme in our history, that of government protecting individualism by keeping the economic playing field level."
In other words, government regulation and oversight are an essential element to a thriving, free-market, capitalist, economy. The same can be said for maintaining a habitable planet.
Both notions fly in the face of reaganism's"government IS the problem" philosophy that is the core of current Republican political dogma.
One hopes that after the last two examples of first Republican then Democratic responses to the Covid 19 pandemic illustrating the effectiveness of both philosophies that more and more people are becoming aware of the wisdom of the progressive point of view of the role government must play in modern affairs.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Color me a cheerleader for all things competition! I checked my toolbox and found nothing to further this conversation.
However, and not to distract, I discovered that an organization called Four Directions Native Vote has joined forces with another organization called Fair Count in the effort to overcome voter suppression. What I didn't know is that Fair Count is another "arrow" in Stacey Abrams' quiver to advance voting for all disenfranchised people in the country. While listening to a video she put out, another organization, Skoll Foundation, promoted her video. Skoll's mission is to build "a sustainable world of peace and prosperity for all." Anyone with more information to contribute would be most welcome to chime in!
Fair Count:
https://www.faircount.org/
Four Directions:
https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/four-directions-native-vote-and-fair-count-join-forces-to-overcome-voter-suppression#:~:text=ATLANTA%20%E2%80%94%20Four%20Directions%20Native%20Vote%20and%20Fair,effort%20throughout%20various%20parts%20of%20the%20United%20States.
Stacey's video;
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fair+fight+versus+fair+count&docid=608011006652153688&mid=ECA4E4C03CCEF5E83A97ECA4E4C03CCEF5E83A97&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
Skoll:
https://skoll.org/
I got nothin' today.
There's a new fire just to the north of where we are wrapping up our "birthday weekend" family gathering. My niece's boyfriend (they are both pilots for Horizon Air) was able to identify not just the four planes (well, three planes and one helicopter) flying out of the Redmond Airport, but realize that he had a friend flying the helicopter. There are small areas of Jefferson County on Level 3 / Level 2 evac notices (leave now, get your stuff ready to leave). There's another new fire to the south with additional evac notices.
I did read (with waning interest) the commentary today. It seems some regular contributors are interested in simply stirring the pot of argument, calling out the Professor for her whiteness, or simply baiting other readers. I have also been subjected to my ever so "reasonable" "conservative" friends challenging all of the "libs" to clearly articulate why voter registration is so hard, and how "we" really believe that "the blacks" are "too dumb to get their documentation together." I firmly believe that there has been an engineered divide in this country, and on a visceral level it has finally worked for me. These people, that I once tried to have discussions with, are just (insert several various profanities, blasphemies, and vulgarities here) idiots who have surrendered their frontal cortexes to their amygdalae and are now just blathering.
Godspeed to President Biden as he tries to undo* the mess that 40 years of Republiqan politics have gotten us into. I'm off to try and remotely coordinate a band rehearsal that will include distribution of music in an outdoor setting.
*substitute a profanity here as well.
“Biden’s speech on Friday reclaims a different theme in our history, that of government protecting individualism by keeping the economic playing field level.”
I would add a couple of observations. Capitalism depends on an ever expanding “universe” and the U.S. economy has reached, in a product cycle analogy, the mature phase of business where “sales” level off and decline. That does not necessarily represent a bad thing, but it complicates the macro economics.
Given the overlay of climate change and its impact on where food will be grown, water availability, migrating populations, pollution that exists in every corner of the globe, and the vast economic inequities that exist in this country as well as around the world, innovation and growth need to be viewed with a very different lens.
IMO, the playing field that needs to be leveled in today’s world has more to do with protecting the collective vs. straight up individualism.
The race to consumer space travel by the multi $billionaire trio Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk is an example of what I see as “innovation” and individualism gone astray. Again, IMO they are not “exploring”, they are exploiting. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. More than ever, we need to recognize the difference when applying political solutions and policies.
We do need our president and politicians to recognize the ills of our big businesses and the one way flow of wealth. I listened to one of Robert Reich’s info videos. That if they taxed Bezos as is proposed, Bezos would pay the amount he makes in half of a day! I don’t remember the amount but it was more than I’ll make in a lifetime. That’s ludicrous!
Break up trusts and monopolies, tax these extremely rich vultures, give us working schmoes a chance at a better life. Repair our societal needs.
This letter makes me think we can get back on track!
Thank you, Heather!
I'm heartened by the unexpected things President Biden is doing. It's clear he's listening to more progressive voices, including those his administration has hired. But will steps like these make enough of a difference in the short-term (next elections) and help increase the slim Democratic margins?
Thank you for this. In many ways, as you describe it, last Friday’s speech is historic, and inspirational. But it was not well-covered by the media. I am hearing about it from you, in spite of not being inattentive to news. It was not discussed on Sunday news shows, which, if they were not outright interrupted by Virgin and Richard Branson’s replication of an X-15 flight (something which no one I saw happened to mention), they spent most of their time talking about. What I fear most—what Trump and the Republicans of today exploit so thoroughly—is that the gatekeepers of the media, who should focus public attention on what is important, are constantly focusing on the trivial, or on outright delusions. The founders, who seem to have feared popular opinion could be misled at times, expected that at least leaders who would gather together in Congress, representing their different interests, would set aside the noise, and on balance make reasonable decisions, and through the franking privilege, help to moderate delusions, and guide their constituents, as with Edmund Burke’s Speech to the Electors of Bristol. But instead, if they do not outright promote monstrous delusions themselves—which, even if covered in the news with horror, are covered—or react by denouncing delusions and lies, the politicians do not speak of the good they try to do for the public often enough. Or, more accurately, the gatekeepers of the media largely ignore them when they do speak about significant and important policy and legislation. Public opinion is constantly being misled, and Republican leaders, to a level of near-treasonous proportions, seem prepared to exploit the failures of the media, rather than to address them. They seem to be motivated solely by desire for personal power, and the power of their key multimillionaire supporters, against the interests of their own constituents, and the vast majority of the public. Your letter on Biden’s speech is a valuable blow against that tendency, and I will share it. But what can be done to help make news coverage more focused on actual public issues, rather than spectacle or folly?
We need more muckrakers!
It is greed, lust for power, that kneecaps us today.
Cooperation with competition will work for a just and sustainable future. The notion of 'sustainable' is fairly critical. We are, again, burning in the West. If we are not placing the environment and sustainable economies in the forefront, we are not succeeding.
As a artist, I have to compete with hundreds and sometimes thousands of others, in order to be accepted into top fairs around the country. I am the producer, buyer, marketing director, sales clerk, janitor and muscle that carries, cleans, puts up and takes down hundreds of pounds of equipment in whatever weather mother nature throws at us. Competition is fierce. I make beadwoven jewelry. Jewelry is often 25 percent of all available art at a fair.
Most art fairs do not allow “buy-sell” items. In this case, they don’t make me compete with items manufactured overseas and sold at very cheap prices; prices I cannot compete with given how labor intensive my medium is. I appreciate that. My work is good; I have won Best of Show, which is rare in the jewelry world. But my prices are high. If they weren’t, I couldn’t make a living.
Biden’s goal is similar- level the playing field, increase honest competition, keep those trying to monopolize the market from being able to control it while also paying attention to consumer needs. Sounds like good governance to protect the economy to me. We have so much to do right now. Rein in predatory corporate practices, protect and re-secure the right to vote, work on regulating carbon emissions, and help those most affected by loss of jobs during the pandemic. And the Delta variant is out there wreaking havoc. I grateful to have a president and his staff capable of multi tasking. Lots of work to do - just like an artist.
There is another type of monopoly emerging in our technical age. The exploitation of data. Some of these big tech companies manage data for smaller companies and then absorb and eviscerate the small company because the swallowing company has all the pertinent data of that small company - customer lists, etc.etc. -- and exploits it for their own benefit many times putting the smaller out of business. It is in these small businesses and start-ups where real innovation happens so we lose a lot when they are stifled.
Hopefully, among the mergers and acquisitions they won't allow is Amazon to swallow MGM here in Hollywood. Big Tech is set to fuck up Hollywood like they have fucked up every other sphere of economic action they invade and destroy. Bezos wants MGM for the same reason the other Tech giants want to grab a studio, to - as he says - redevelop and reimagine all the IP MGM holds" - what that means is recycle every old movie in the MGM library into something "new, yet not so different." That's what happens when monopolies become dominant - they don't want innovation and new stuff, because they don't know how to control and market that. I'm talking about the parochial interests of movies, but it works the same everywhere.
And yes, I will urge you all to buy my books through Amazon, since they offer honest accounting to my publisher, which means honest accounting to me, unlike the bookstore business, whose "accounting" processes make "Hollywood accounting" look like it's the product of angels.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Capitalism, even with open and fair competition, tends to be an extractive philosophy which is destroying the ecosystem in which we used to thrive. Growth is no longer simply or necessarily good.