Avarice and Envy

Watching the current political campaign ads has reminded me of how little things change. The cycle goes like this:

• Current politicians do something bad (lie, steal, cause harm to the citizens or nation, etc.).
• Election year comes around and new candidates run promising to “clean up”, “address wrongs”, “solve problems”, and make other encouraging noises to get elected.
• We elect the ones that promise to “clean house” and give us everything we want.
• The new politicians get into office and do the same things as the last ones.
• Next election time we do it all over again.

Don’t be too depressed by this though, you can go all the way back to the time of the Greeks and Romans and find the same basic pattern. Too bad we seem incapable of learning from the past.

There have been one or two high points in human history. One of those is the 17^th century Dutch Republic. They fought a long war, around 30 years, to free themselves from Spanish rule. They then created a free and open society that became a haven for intellectuals and other refugees. Many scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers came there. Some of the founders of the United States were inspired by these refugees.

In the Amsterdam Town Hall they put many reminders of who they were and what was important to them. One of them stands out to me: it is a relief carving of Justice, holding a golden sword in one hand and scales in the other. Justice stands between Death and Punishment and is stepping on Avarice and Envy, the gods of the merchants. The Dutch put that there because they realized that “the unrestrained pursuit of profit posed a threat to the nation’s soul.”

For many years now our country has been under the impression that what is good for business is good for the country (or at least that is what our elected officials keep telling us). The wealthy businesses owners give money to their chosen candidate and then the successful candidate obediently passes laws in favor of business (which is why wealthy people give money to candidates in the first place: to get what they want). And what benefit does the average citizen see? Here’s a small list:

• Jobs outsourced because labor is cheaper somewhere else
• Benefits cut for most workers
• Top executives “golden parachutes” turning into “platinum parachutes”
• “Made in the USA” replaced by “Made in China”

Wish I had a solution for this mess. Unfortunately all I can do is climb up on my electronic platform here and offer my opinions and hope for the best. Please think about this. I’d love to know what you think.

Oh, one last thing: while working on this post I came across an article entitled "Why Economists Should Not Be Ashamed of Being the Philosophers of Prudence". Interesting reading.