Blogger and magazine guru Rex Hammock had a very good post over the weekend entitled “Things I No Longer Believe In”. It’s mostly aimed at the destruction of the credibility of the institutions and individuals who have played a role in the economic disaster we’re going through. He singles out Congress for its inability to see beyond the short-term political strategies of its membership, the notion of any institution being “too big to fail”, and the absurdity of “real-tine market analysis” on CNBC, among others.
I thought it was a very thoughtful exercise, and I agreed with all of his choices and rationales for them. Still, I think I can add a few of my own:
“The American Dream” — okay, so this one needs a little more definition, because I think there are actually several different “American Dreams” to choose from, so the one I am specifically referring to is the one that posits that every American can and should be a middle-class homeowner living in a suburb. This idea really didn’t manifest itself as “The American Dream” until after WWII; previously, the “American Dream” was more about rising up from lowly serf to captain of industry in the Horatio Alger style, but the Great Depression pretty much proved what a pipe dream that really was to most Americans, and so sights were set on the less-lofty goal of home ownership as the pinnacle of achievement for the majority of Americans. Of all the ideas that went to hell in a handbasket with the boom and bust of the last decade, it is this one that was oversold by greedy and unscrupulous banks and mortgage companies, then twisted into unrecognizable permutations that would have otherwise been dismissed as outright fraud years earlier. On closer historical examination, there’s a lot to suggest this wasn’t a particularly sustainable idea in the first place, but I’m usually willing to give the decision-makers of the past the benefit of the doubt for not being able to imagine THIS as the future.
Economists — Who did these people fellate to convince the world that they deserved doctoral degrees? They’ve proven to be very good at rationalizing things after the fact, but anybody can do that. What they obviously can’t do is explain how to keep the economy from falling into a bottomless pit. Pet theories, cherry-picked examples and evidence, full-blown quackery, and an appalling determination to promote their own ideas over anybody elses make them the least-reputable “scientists” one can possibly imagine. Lately there’s been some complaint that the media are relying on their own bloviating gasbag pundits for insightful commentary than “real economists”, but that’s probably a wise move on the part of the media outlets.
“Saving For Your Future” — Yeah, right. An entire generation of people has just watched whatever retirement savings they had disappear into billions of scattered electrons. The older half of the Baby Boom will be the last generation of Americans to engage in the cultural fantasy of “Retirement”, and the rest of us will work until we drop dead in our cubicles. As my half of the Baby Boom skids headfirst into our “golden Years”, we’re going to have to reinvent collective housing, develop entirely new models of labor that accommodate older employees, and probably stage a “Million Grannies March” on Washington to undo the half-assed systems that our older Boomer siblings didn’t have to worry about because they didn’t need it.
“Planned Obsolescence” — The “everything’s a widget” model of capitalism is going to have to go the way of the dodo tout suite. Making everything from phones to TVs to dishwashers to cars so freakin’ flimsy that they break just to look at them will not be sustainable from the standpoint of consumers without money to spend, from businesses that can’t constantly sell “more more more more”, and from the rapidly encroaching realities of our depleted natural resources and shifting climate. This means that everything the businesspeople think about running their corporations is now and forevermore obsolete, and they might as well all give up and start over again.
I’ll keep adding to this list as I come up with others. You can, too.
i actually prefer your list to his. the american dream, as you describe it, might have had more of a chance if the houses hadn’t gotten so fucking big. last time i was in the US i drove past a new development and gigantic buildings stood shoulder to shoulder, eaves practically touching, on dinky little lots.
i majored in economics, and must unfortunately agree with your analysis.
as far as saving goes, i’m wondering right now what the safest form is for the bit of cash i currently have. bank account? cash? plutonium? beans? how badly are things going to crash?
planned obsolescence is obscene. is this criticism of yours something you just came up with, or is this idea beginning to spread?
to the list i would add western civilization. what scares me, among other things, is the fact that all knowledge, records, etc have been moved to digital and/or online form, which is not, in the long run, as safe a storage form as, say, tintype photos or clay tablets, IFYKWIM.
So what do you believe/in/hope for?
Karan — I think that’s a fair question but probably deserves a whole post of its own rather than a comment here. I’ll have something to say to that Thursday or Friday.
I’m looking forward to it! Thanks!