Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevy Baby
And it is all part of evolution.
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Sorry, but I can't agree with that analogy. The economy is NOT the same as a natural occurance. The economy is 100% artificial, existing entirely within our heads. It is an immensely useful and powerful artificial construct that certainly allows for vast, beautiful human interaction, but it is
not a force of nature, it is purely a result of human action. Ebbs and flows are caused by humans, not some outside force of nature. We created it, we control it, we ARE it. So I do think we have a responsibility to attempt to administer to those ebbs and flows so as to minimize the negative impact to living, breathing human beings as much as possible while still retaining its usefulness as a tool for human interaction.
In my partially educated, and not very humble opinion, there are 2 major contributors to the state the economy is in.
One is an unhealthy obsession with the stock market. It's to the point where the only thing that matters is for a company to increase its stock in the short term. Every decision is made to appease the short-term interests of the stock holders. Decisions that would be better for the long term health of a company are routinely passed by for fear of hurting their immediate stock price. That leads to MASSIVE volatility.
The other is the impunity with which a select few people who have the most direct influence on the economy have. Heads of major investment firms, through whom the vast majority of money eventually flows, are free to gamble with that money as they please, knowing that their absolute worst case scenario is a couple weeks in the headlines and multi-million dollar retirement package. Their cavalier miscalculations, mistakes, and wild ass guesses unquestionable have the power to move markets and ruin lives, and they can do it consequence free. Until that changes, we will always be on the brink of disaster.