It occurs to me with some disgust and fear that we may be living in some of the last good days. Taking myself as an example, while I have my troubles, I have a job. I have cable TV and WiFi and a cell phone. I eat well; too well. I have a retirement to look forward to, health care, a car. I am college educated and have never known war first hand. I don’t fear the police or thugs coming for me or mine. I’m very lucky. Many people in this world have none of these things. I was raised by survivors of the Depression. They made sure I understood that it wasn’t much fun.
This fortunate life, and millions of other such lives, is supported by a complicated public and private sector economy based on credit. People, banks, businesses, and governments borrow from other people, banks, businesses and governments with the expectation that they’ll pay them back with interest. That money then gets used to pay for stuff or to invest in other stuff. Credit, of course, only works if everyone involved believes they’ll get their loaned money back and/or they can pay said money back. Credit is an article of faith.
I am losing my religion.
The papers some weeks back were full of opinions that the congress and president would eventually and certainly agree to extend the debt ceiling and pay our bills. These reasonable opinions were based on the assumption that the legislature and executive branch would behave rationally. Only an irrational, unhinged or ignorant person would put the whole world economy at risk.
Fair enough. Here’s what I’ve been thinking lately.
An expectation that you will reach an agreement with a negotiating partner who is ideologically opposed to you without meeting them halfway is irrational. Believing that nothing untoward will happen if you do not pay your bills is irrational. Belief in absolutes (all taxes are bad or good, the government or the private sector is always bad or good, everyone in the other party or your own party is bad or good, etc.) is irrational. A belief that the future depends on everyone sharing your views is irrational. A belief that there are some government functions (defense, social programs, health care, education, etc.) that are sacrosanct and cannot be modified, reduced, eliminated, expanded, or otherwise changed is irrational. A belief that being loud, threatening, condescending or angry is the same thing as being right is irrational. A belief that the 18th century men who wrote our constitution were prescient, brilliant and benign enough to produce an infallible and perfect governing document that anticipated everything from emancipation through suffrage to the World Wide Web is irrational. A belief that a literal interpretation of the Christian bible should guide all aspects of civic life is irrational. A refusal to believe in the environmental consequences of everything from climate change to resource extraction is irrational. A belief that unlimited corporate money in the political system will not corrupt the recipients is irrational.
Get the picture?
These are the guys charged with keeping the economy from descending into a depression which will impoverish and kill people. If they don’t pull it off, there ought to be consequences. I’ll opt for the ballot box myself, but I must say I’m worried. They ought to be too.
