The Ten Pillar’s of Economic Wisdom

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Chaparral

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If nothing else has showed my age and complete lack of education let us drag this forward from economic courses in the 1960s, you will now have a good understanding of macroeconomics 101 without the maths:


1. Nothing in our material world can come from nowhere, nor can it be free; everything in our economic life has a source, a destination and a cost that must be paid – by someone.

2. Government is never a source of goods. Everything produced is produced by the people, and everything that government gives to the people, it must first take from the people.

3. The only valuable money that government has to spend is that money taxed or borrowed from people’s earnings. When government decides to spend more than it has thus received, that extra unearned money is created out of thin air, through the banks and/or the printing presses, and when spent, takes on value only by reducing the value of all other money, savings and insurance.

4. In our modern exchange economy, all payroll and employment come from customers, and the only worthwhile job security is customer security. If there are no customers, there can be no payroll and no jobs.

5. Customer security can be achieved by the worker only when he/she cooperates with management in doing the things that win and hold customers. Job security, therefore, is a partnership problem that can only be solved in a spirit of understanding and cooperation.

6. Because wages are the principle cost of everything, wide spread wage increases without corresponding increases in productivity, simply increase everyone’s cost of living.

7. The greatest good for the greatest number means, in its material sense, the most goods for the greatest number, which, in turn, means the greatest productivity per worker.

8. All productivity is based on three factors: (a) natural resources, whose form, place and condition are changed by the expenditure of (b) human energy (both muscular and mental), with the aid of (c) tools.

9. Tools are the only one of these three factors that man can increase without limit, and tools come into being in a free society only when there is a reward for that portion of their earnings that people must temporarily channel into new tools of production as opposed to purchases that produce immediate comfort and pleasure. Proper payment for the use of tools is essential for their creation.

10. The productivity of the tools-that is, the efficiency of the human energy applied in connection with their use-has always been highest in a competitive society in which the economic decisions are freely made by millions of progressive-seeking individuals, rather than in a state-planned society in which those decisions are made by a handful of all-powerful people, regardless of how benevolent, sincere and intelligent those people may be.
 

Chaparral

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#2 stands. TVA, Corps, other agencies produce electricity. Before they could government had to take land and collect taxes to gain capital to fund the projects. They were not zero cost to the general population though you may not have been directly elected. Believe me, someone was. And the people who receive the electricity have to pay for it.
 

GeneW

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There is a tremendous knowledge of Economics, many theories, some bad, some good, some crap, and it can and will become very complicated. Having said that, if you just learn this one thing it will take you far in life.

The cure for high prices is....high prices.

The cure for low prices is....low prices.

If prices are high, more producers will enter the market place, and due to competition, prices will fall.

If prices are low, less producers will stay/be in the market place and prices will rise.

Sounds simplistic, and it is, and yet it is deeply profound and not complicated. Once you understand this you will be much more knowledgeable with the crap government tries to tell you.

Truly the fact is the Invisible Hand of a free market economy is the best thing ever to help people live better.
 

John6185

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Apparently someone did listen to the instructor. Good points, based on this the OP should run for public office. He is far better qualified that some of the Harvard lawyers shacked up in congress.
 

TerryMiller

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#2 stands. TVA, Corps, other agencies produce electricity. Before they could government had to take land and collect taxes to gain capital to fund the projects. They were not zero cost to the general population though you may not have been directly elected. Believe me, someone was. And the people who receive the electricity have to pay for it.

Point was that TVA does produce. Your #2 indicated they government didn't.
 

Chaparral

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Fred G Clark and Richard Stanton Rimanoczy (Chairman and President of The American Economics Foundation, 51 East 42 St., NY, NY 10017-as of 1969, the date of my book, "How We Live", where their Ten Pillars appeared). D Van Nostrand held the copyright. The Pillars possibly were on 10 plaques in the Hall of Free Enterprise at the 1964 NY City World’s Fair.

The thought the TVA or GRDA or Corps of Engineers produces electricity shows number 2 as some portion incorrect is inaccurate. I do not like strawman arguments.

the electricity produced is only accomplished after government has taken from the people. The argument a good is provided is same as saying government cheese is a good provided. Before anything could happen government had to acquire land from land owners. Taxes were collected to pay for construction. There is no risk associated to government project running out of funds and ceasing to exist. The funds are the people governed. The result of the take is then sold back to the governed just as is food stamps, Medicare, etal. There is no FIAT, it is a blank argument along the lines of our $1.6T bill will be at zero net cost and have no ill effect on the economy or increase in budget deficit.

I would be a semi-benevolent despot at best.
 

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