I know I've been hammering capitalism a bit on this blog, but it seems to be occupying my mind quite a bit these days. This week was no exception. I arrived in New York on Tuesday morning at almost the same time the Fed announced its emergency 0.75 point cut in the federal funds rate. By the time I left the city, House leaders had agreed with the White House on the basic elements of an "economic stimulus" package to help right the listing ship of the U.S. economy.
It was a flurry of activity that dominated the media agenda for the week. Talk of recession, inflation and what could be done to stop the downward spiral reverberated off the skycrapers of Manhattan, the corridors of Capitol Hill and the backs of auditoriums in South Carolina. It all seemed like an odd frenzy to me, born more from perception than hard economic data. In fact, it appears that market indicators are mixed at worst, with as many reasons for optimism as despair. Yet the skittish traders on Wall Street joined the nervous pundits on cable TV to fuel a nation's fears.
Let's just accept the pervailing wisdom for a moment that a recession is in the offing. So what? Isn't it normal for economies to go through cycles of expansion and contraction? That's what I remember from the few economics courses I took as an undergrad. It seems, however, that our patience for the natural ebb and flow of things has worn thin. In our hubris, we believe we no longer need to be subject to forces of nature, be they upticks in the global temperature or downturns in the national economy. Our wealth, our comfort, our mastery over all things must continuously be on the rise.
It's ironic, though, that this perpetual prosperity seems only to benefit those who already have the most, while the poorest among us drop deeper into despair. I believe that sooner or later it must all come crashing down unless we're willing to replace greed as the driving force in our society with some other, more sustainable value. What might it be?
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