I need to be more fair to Malthus - and pretty much every economist of the 19th century - because they didn't think it was your fault you were a loser and made the mistake of not being born into wealth or at least the petty bourgeoisie - it was simply a natural law, like, say, Newton's law of gravity.
And enough nuclear weapons to blow the planet to dust many times over? That, if I know my 19th century economists, was a natural law, too. Like Halley's Comet comes around every 76 years. If you think about it, they're pretty much the same thing. The invention of the telephone and laser beam were like slavery and genocide. All of the 19th century economist's "natural laws" and the examples I gave have the same thing in common: they all occurred in Nature. There must be some "law" that accounts for it; we can't help any of those things, can we? Those old-time economists were no dummies, no sir! If you tried to complain that some action or occurrence was "unnatural" they would just laugh! Err...right? (I hate to say it, but I bet if you looked into it yourself, "sodomy" might fall outside the realm of the Natural.) I mean, if it occurs in Nature, it must be Natural, eh? And as Aristotle and God said, all these things are subject to Laws. Because if there were no Laws governing Everything, well, then it would just be everyone wearing black t-shirts and listening to punk rock, or some of the more unruly Bach sonatas. And breaking windows. And throwing bombs that look like tiny bowling balls with fuses on them. That's what anarchists do! I think we can all agree we'd rather have a Civil Society, one where you get thirty years for trying to sell an ounce of pot to an undercover cop in Texas. That's what God and/or The Invisible Hand wants!
Can't you see the Beauty in it all? The harmony of the spheres!
(Aristotle is reputed to be a heavy smoker of ganja, so please don't ask me to explain it all. I will admit that these things are more complex than I sometimes make them out to be. There are limits to even MY knowledge. But we do know Aristotle [384-322 BCE] would frown upon anarchy. Aristotle lived before the MRI machine, so he thought the brain was an organ to cool the blood, which I don't hold against him, great Generalist that he was. He also thought slavery was "natural" and that women lacked a certain something that men had, so they shouldn't be allowed to vote, which explains why Tea Baggers are buying up old copies of his Politics
like they're the last of the grits at Waffle House. But I digress...)Anyway, it's nice to have something so gol-derned unpleasant such as dire poverty subject to the wonderful laws of Nature; we get to wash our hands of the unpleasant stuff, enjoy the fruits of the cool stuff, and make it to the All U Can Eat Steak night at the buffet before closing time.
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Things evolved towards some measure of nuanced understanding of humanity when David Ricardo (1772-1823, but keep in mind that he died on 9/11 of 1823), the brilliant Scottish economist, argued that, if you tell the poor they have any rights beyond what they can win in the market, it's only hurting them. And we ought not hurt the poor. Explain to them calmly: I know it may sound somewhat harsh and lacking in sentiment, but you don't have even a right to live (I'm not making this stuff up folks!) if you interfere with the profound workings of the wonderful Market, with its ineffably magical Invisible Hand. Efficiency and growth are what we're after; you should've picked your parents more wisely. My point is: just communicate to the poor why they're fucked; it's the human thing to do. What are we? Animals? I think not...
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Think about it: Marx (Karl, not Groucho: dates: 1818-1883) had, in the what? 45 million pages he wrote? Marx had hardly anything to say that was specific about a future non-capitalistic society; he spends almost his entire life having the audacity to critique the thinking of Malthus and Ricardo and other intellectuals. And Marx is the guy wearing the Black Hat in our history? (Well, Unistat's history...) That's all I heard as a kid: Karl Marx (which equals "Russian people") gonna hide under yo bed; git yo momma!
So, everyone: give up 53 cents out of every tax dollar you pay so we can give it to high-tech companies so they can figure out a way to make a better bomb. (And then, with the R&D you funded, they eventually sell you a Hi-Def TV that evolved from the research. And that's...capitalism?)
(Oh, and your money also paid all soldiers in 130 counties in which the US had military bases, funded the Pentagon, numerous wars, funded Saddam Hussein against Iran, taught the Afghan mujahideen - many who later morphed into al-Qaeda - how to fight off the damned Russkies, kept Noriega on the payroll as he administered his narco-state, the CIA, DIA, NSA...an entire alphabet soup of upper-middle-class people needed socialism so we can keep capitalism as our "way of life" and keep out "communism." It makes sense, if you think about it. If you think about it while the cold grip of adrenalized terror marks you every moment on Earth, that is.)
And people bought it. Literally. You can do a lot with fear, turns out. Hell, just look at your TV today.
Anyway, back to David Ricardo's (no relation to Lucille Ball except they're both a real laff-riot!) ideas and how they played out in the 19th century in industrializing nations: if you were an economist you HAD to believe that stuff. Thankfully, things have changed.
For example, in 1986 an economist named Rajani Kannepalli Kanth at the University of Utah wrote a book very critical of the social conditions that the non-rich lived under during Ricardan economics. The book is titled Political Economy and Laissez-Faire: Economy and Ideology in the Ricardan Era
. And then, Kanth was chased out of the University of Utah. You can be outraged at this, in the late 1980s, but you know what I call it? Progress. And it was about effing time...
Well, that's about all for my first round of Potshots at Economics, folks! If you didn't like these stories, I'm afraid I have more upcoming. No one forced you to read this Overweening Dude's blog!
