Taking Every Thought Captive

In his comment on Living in La-La Land, Shamgar writes:

My wife sent me this, and I’m glad to see it. For your husband’s sake Sombra, this is what is known as Keynesian economics.

The really boiled down concept is that we can all spend ourselves into prosperity. The more we spend, the more is produced, the more jobs are created, the more money is made, the more we spend, etc. Big long cycle.

To a Keynesian, saving money is evil and wicked. You are “hoarding” and you are hurting everyone by not constantly spending. Not only should you spend what you have, you should spend more than what you have.

It’s all a big central planning fiasco. We should’ve learned a long time ago that doesn’t work.

If you haven’t already read it, and are interested in things like this, I highly recommend Henry Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson”. It’s economics for normal people, easy to read, not overly technical, but definitely helps to see all the fallacies that certain folks who would really prefer we all not pay attention to the man behind the curtain try to perpetrate on us every day.

When I was at the Republican Party convention the man in front of me wanted to add a statement about balancing the budget to our state’s Republican platform. A young man in the audience argued this using Keynesian Economics. It was the first time I had heard the phrase. I admit, I wasn’t interested enough to run home and learn about the economic theory being forwarded by this young man. Besides, he appeared to be trying to make sense out of non-sense. I ceased trying to do that years ago! America’s whole economy is based upon spending instead of saving and upon usury; ideas the Bible identifies as foolishness and an abomination. And, history proves that, in every society that used ‘paper’ money (that is money not backed by anything), attempts to regulate the economy failed and the system collapsed. Who said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it?”

You can read Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson on-line! I know, I hate reading books on-line too. But, it is well worth your time. Okay, I am only on Lesson 7, but so far it has been well worth my time.

It is often sadly remarked that the bad economists present their errors to the public better than the good economists present their truths. It is often complained that demagogues can be more plausible in putting forward economic nonsense from the platform than the honest men who try to show what is wrong with it. But the basic reason for this ought not to be mysterious. The reason is that the demagogues and bad economists are presenting half-truths. They are speaking only of the immediate effect of a proposed policy or its effect upon a single group. ~ Henry Hazlitt

I do love when my commenters blog for me; thank you Shamgar!

Now, on a lighter note, Marissa’s economic standard:

“I would never, ever go near the Amazon River, not if you gave me all the MEN in the world!”