Questions and Observations
Free Markets, Free People
It is written by Bruce Mc Quain and I'm a fan. Yesterday, he made a post titled "Another Great Depression or just another slow Recovery". In his usual skillful manner, he explains the fallacy of past and current government policy as it relates to the economy. In the course of his discussion he makes reference to a quote of Donald Luskin which I want to share:
"The only way to get out of debt is to earn money."
"The only way to get out of a recession is to grow."
"If you kill growth you are in trouble."
As Bruce says, current government policies are killing growth. He then poses the question " So what can government do?" To which he answers, "Cut business taxes. Get out of the way." Thus providing incentives for for business to expand and hire. Clearly, no fiscal conservative is going to argue with Bruce's recommendation. I too agree with Bruce; but I was compelled to make a comment to his blog post ; and I want to share those thoughts here.
We have been tauting this same message for who knows how many years; but very few people are buying our ideas. Why not? We have some very smart people on our side. We know we are right. So why don't our ideas sell? Its not because the majority of people are unable to understand or that the majority of politicians are stupid. I say the failure is ours. We have done a horrible job in selling or ideas. When our pundits talk about our ideas, we come across cold, hard bastards that don't give a damn about those who suffer the most; all we care about is that the fat cats get fatter. And we know that that is how we come across. So I say we need to look for better ways to package our ideas in a more palatable manner. We, and especially our pundits, need to learn to speak in language that almost anybody can understand.i if we're to have any hope in selling our ideas.
Before I retired, I was an engineer/executive in the mining industry for many years. Numerous times in my career I would receive reports from young engineers recommending that the company invest in an idea of theirs to increase production or reduce cost or in some way benefit the company. I would often reject these ideas even though, as an engineer, I knew they were good ideas; because I knew that the engineer's report was not going to convince anybody on the board of directors to approve the request for capital. I would call the engineer to my office and explain that he could have the best idea in the world, but he didn't sell that idea then it was worthless. He would lose because he wouldn't get the recognition for a good idea and the company would lose for missing out on the benefits that the idea would have provided. I would then send them away to rewrite their report with the following suggestions:
1. Describe the situation as it currently is.
2. Explain the problem.
3. Explain the options to resolve the problem.
4. Explain why the option that you recommended is the best.
5. Most of all, use language that anybody can understand and be as brief possible.
I believe that our pundits when writing or talking about our ideas on economic policy could benefit by applying these same principles to what they write or what they say.
Another area where I think we are failing is we don't admit to the world or to ourselves that we have some very unscrupulous players in the market place; some investment bankers just for example. We know this. The public knows this, as well as the politicians. We need, in my opinion, develop ways to police those who abuse the public trust and if not, we should keep our mouths shut about government intervention when they decide to take more aggressive steps.
Enough said.
Sense or nonsense?
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