Hi mindmeld; Re our differences on central bank and inflation and all that.
The system we've had since 1913 is more than 100 years old. You want to replace it with a system that is radically different. I see your fanaticism as more dangerous than that of Obama and health care. Instead of replacing 15% of the economy with an untested scheme based on twisted and untested ideas of economics, you want to replace the whole foundation of our capitalist system with an untested scheme based on twisted and untested economics ideas. Sure you're on the opposite side of the political spectrum from the liberals but your ideas are just as untested.
What I see is a system that has worked incredibly well for 100 years. Yes there are still booms and busts but there were booms and busts long before the Federal Reserve was created. When I see people claiming they have a solution to illness and death (make them more efficient by bringing big government into it) I look for my wallet because I know they do not understand the thing they are promising to create. And when people promise that they have a solution to the booms and busts which have been present in capitalism for a thousand years in a hundred nations, I also look for my wallet. I don't trust you because you can show us no history of any country where these ideas were (a) implemented for a reasonable length of time (say 50 to 100 years) and where the result was an absence of booms and busts (or any other improvement over our current economic system). Since our financial system booms and busts are a slow thing that takes generations to go through a cycle, we cannot determine whether the ideas or good or bad until we have watched the system go through several generations. Best would be say three or four cycles, maybe 120 years or so.
The essence of conservatism is the belief that doing things the old way is typically better (and definitely safer) than the untested ideas of theoreticians. If an idea is worth exploring, then it needs to be explored in a small and safe way. Making sudden changes to an entire economic system is a bad idea.
If you can figure out a way of cutting the economy of, for example, Texas, away from the Federal Reserve, then please share it. I likely will support it. Maybe Puerto Rico should be used to explore your ideas. And if, given a reasonable length of time say 50 or 100 years, if Puerto Rico thrives, and avoids booms and busts, then sure, we can give it a try here.
Same thing goes with the climate change folks. It's just theoretical ideas unsupported by the wisdom of experience.
Maybe I'm wrong on this. Maybe there is a major country where your ideas on central banking have been tested for a couple of generations. Name the country.
-- Carl |
