CIRCULAR ARGUMENT

 IS ECONOMIC GROWTH THE WRONG GOAL?

FREAKONOMICS Radio Podcast #429 

is about a subject dear to my heart: the insanity of the endless pursuit of GDP.

Can constant growth possibly be a good thing? It just doesn't make sense. 

I do understand it. It's cheaper to make new stuff than to refurbish the old. But that is kind of misleading, too. We set it up that way. But there are many ways we could have set it up that would have led is to a whole 'nuther reality. Several years ago I did a Commentary on Marketplace about becoming a vegetarian. The gist of it was, that if we had a fair system of land and water pricing and distribution, a McDonald's burger would cost over $30. I realize that in a fancy restaurant, notably the restaurant on the ground floor of the new Whitney Museum, a burger does cost about that. I was writing, however, closer to 1999 when the price was seventy-nine cents. My point was I was not ideologically a vegetarian, but if the true cost of each burger, divested of special dispensations for cattle grazing on public lands, drinking public water, other subsidies, surplus grain used for feed and so on, the price alone would drive me into the arms of Veganism.

Each item mentioned above, plus tax breaks and so on is worth serious study on its own for ancillary damage. For example, the bad health consequences for us eating meat that is fed grain rather than grass. But that is for another day.

TERRIFIED 3--THEY ARE WHO THEY ARE. WHO ARE WE?

Today (08/08) is our wedding anniversary. We are still happy. I caught myself up short when I realized that we could have 32 more years together. The over-100 age group is the fastest-growing demographic in the US, someone told me. And while I don't feel old, I am definitely so-considered, especially for purposes of taking care not to get Covid-19. 

But today's real topic, tho' appropriate if we are going to live such very long lives:

The Republicans are just who they are, and have never hidden it.

As a nation we, led by them, have blown serious opportunities to marshal world opinion and resources in support of understanding and peace. One example, at and after the collapse of the Soviet Union: we did virtually nothing to see that Russia did not become a thugocracy, and guess what? It did. We feel it now as they gear up to give the election to our thug. Again.

After 9/11, we had a moment when all our bad decisions and questionable alliances with dictators and our contortions to keep Saudi Arabia as an ally could have been overlooked, forgiven, even, with world sympathy pouring in. What did we do? Iraq war. How is that working out for us?

The question is, what are we going to do about it?

While I admire the talent of people like Colbert, I am annoyed by the listing of gaffs, personal quirks and disabilities of our political class. AS ripe as they are for comedy, I do not think the jokes help. 

All the bad stuff, the foreign policy shockers, and the unbelievably diminished stature of the US in the world, with its concomitant abrogation of our ability to be effective, needs actual work, not jokes. The way that our health professionals are being vilified and undermined simply to add confusion to the public discourse is surprisingly effective. 

Why?

Why are we so vulnerable to certain types of lies and distractions?

Any answers out there?