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Re: Keynesian Chickens Coming Home
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HvyOilGuy
It's more the What than the How
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Jan 30 08 10:44 PM
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Independent of the "system" or "philosophy" that got is into this fix, is the fact that we hae misallocated resources in such a horrendous, irreversible way that we cannot now recover anything but a small fraction of the so-called wealth we thought we were accumulating.
What percent of a person's income during his lifetime was spent on acquiring, financing, maintaining, sheltering, operating, and insuring a private automobile?
My guess is nearly a third for the average American my age. Just to get to and from "work", with the occasional weekend excurion and a two week summer vacation of "motoring". What if just half of what was spent were now to be available in a recoverable form for retirement?
How much of a person's available resources went into the costs of buying, maintaining, financing, and paying utilities if he is living in the typical American McMansion.
Probably in excess of forty percent (I know, it was a lot less in the fifities and sixties, but we were content with smaller dwellings back then.)
The myth was promoted that a house, (in particular a big one), was incontrovertibly a "store of wealth". But how does the average person (and his family) benefit from McMansion enclosing 30,000 cubic feet, when times get tough? (He probably only "needed" about 10,000 cubic feet in the first place). The salvage value of the materials contained in his "dream house" is probably less than 20%. I'd call it more of a money pit, or a "nightmare house".
How does one reclaim the valuable land that the house is sitting on? The land is probably reduced to something less than 20% of what it's current value would be if left "undeveloped".
Any "system" that produced these outcomes would be classified as a failure by most, worthy of being tossed in the ash can of human history.
The point is that we wasted wealth by private spending in ways that were irreversible, rather than collectively spending it on something that would be long lasting and useful to posterity. Expanded advertising and a false measure of wealth building (GDP) always touted by the government when it is increasing, share in the blame, IMO.
As a result, the next generation will probably be referred to as the "salvage generation", picking its way through city dumps and dismantling abandoned housing in order to survive (barely, if at all.)
HOG
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