Planning Ahead

I'm back, many errands and an hour later.

Since retiring  from The Business three years ago, I am undergoing a process of self-redefinition. It's much easier now to see what I like, and what I do not, than before, since I am largely free of the push and pull of worldly pressures. I never much liked that outside world. I have discovered myself as a cloistered person, which also accounts for my early inclinations toward a career in academia.

Although I am very active in politics on many occasions, and plan to plump for Phil Angelides (for Governor of California) in the forthcoming months, I have never really liked the process or the results. I detest boodle, kowtowing and boot licking. I also detest the way politicians and business people regularly fleece the public without a sigh or a blush. I am hopelessly idealistic about both government and business, as I firmly believe they have proper roles their participants should fulfill with pride. Instead, all that happens is shameless grubbing for money, Piggie style.

One of my bottom-line reasons for opposing the free market philosophy, Capitalism, is its bottom-line assumption: "greed is good." Some commentators on Adam Smith say he was not pleased with that premise, but couldn't find any other way to justify Capitalism. I do give Smith and others credit for founding modern economics, which they conceived as a moral science. ("Economics," or "political economics" as I prefer, was invented by those Enlightenment thinkers. It did not exist in the ancient world or during the Middle Ages.) I also think Smith is stuck with his premise, because Capitalism is otherwise unjustified.

But, is it true? Are people really the greedy, selfish SOBs of Smith's foundation, or have they transmogrified into the "rational" creatures of neo-classical economics?

I think neither. In fact, the reason there are so few eligible CEOs is that there are so few incredibly greedy people. I consider myself a workaholic, but wouldn't do it just for money. That is the difference: the Capitalists do it just for the money. They are devoted to money, and spend every living moment making money. I believe almost everyone else is turned off by such a shallow and monomaniacal commitment. I feel most of the CEOs presented to me (on TV) are boring people. I don't buy or read their "as told to" books. I am not surprised they have to purchase "trophy spouses" (and ghost writers): their glamorous lives are all appearances. They are truly the shadows of Plato's Cave.

Of course we have to work, but like that?

Are people rational in their economic decisions? Probably not. Mandelbrot's (mis)Behavior of Markets shows that transactions are not ordered. L&F member TheProf suggested I get Tversky & Kahneman's Choice, Values, and Frames, which I did (reading in progress). What these latter gentlemen investigate is exactly the irrationality of people's decisions. Moreover, those CEOs hire the glib tongue people to spin, warp and press your buttons, so you will buy their latest, totally unnecessary, useless product. What was I thinking when ...? I know, I know. In the end, nothing matters anyway, because we are all dead and fried in Sol's supernova. So why not fritter away a moment here, an hour there? Well, all right. You do that.

For myself, I prefer minimizing the effort required to serve my body. My life is not about bodily needs, but about the Mind. Another thing I detest is being driven about by bodily needs, even if I agree what I am is just the collection of organic reactions you would see before you, if you were here. Of course, you are not here, but there, on the Internet, where all you see in operation is my Mind. (What an arrangement!)

Call me lazy or lacking or whatever, but I have been routinely uninterested in new cars, new clothes, faddish things, TV and whatever else passes for consumerism. I don't know why I feel as I do; those things just don't impress me. On the other hand, I am truly thrilled and excited when I have a meeting of the minds, especially in conversation or reading. (I love books.) So, I plan my economic life as much as possible to make meeting my bodily requirements as efficient as possible. I did that in my business, and I do it at home. I want my time for me. (Side effect: I was able to run a business at a far lower cost than most people would imagine possible.) (Further side effect: the chief person says, disdainfully, I'm cheap, and moans about not getting her new Prius sooner.)

Chacun a son gout.

Which brings me back to politics. I like a government that takes care of business, smoothly, quickly and effectively. I like a business that does that , too. The idea is to create time and space for people to live their lives, not just work. In Dickens' A Christmas Carol (ah, yes, it is that time again), Scrooge's nephew Fred says 'the only one he hurts by his conceits is himself.'