RE: [Futurework] More on Ireland

[Harry Pollard]

Ed,   It doesn’t matter whether “countries” work together. What matters is that people work together. The glue that binds cooperating people together is the strongest binding of all – self-interest.   The complications that you refer to are created by politicians and economists – an unholy alliance also built on self-interest.   It is surely a simple choice. Should we move toward the self-interest of cooperating people, or toward the self-interest of self-serving politicians?   Some of the best reporting I’ve read has come from your pen. Yet, is it too simple, for example, to relate the 40% unemployment in the favelas to the often empty, yet enormous, lands owned by the land monopolists of Brazil?   A job of the scientist is to simplify. To reduce the complexities of the universe to e=m(c squared).   Yet the major task of modern neo-Classical economists seems to be to avoid the deadly economic problems confronting us while immersing themselves in arcane and mostly irrelevant frivolities. Look at this announcement:   “Robert Russell will be our Economic Theory speaker today in Sproul 2206 from 4:10- 5:30 pm.  His topic is ‘Axiomatic Foundations of Efficiency Measurement on Convex Polyhedral Technologies’”   This isn’t an odd subject. Whole conferences are filled with experts following the “publish or perish” principle with little regard for comprehensible scientific meaningfulness.   I’ve said many times that economists don’t know why there has been a recession, nor even why there was a boom. They really don’t know why people are poor – indeed why it is impossible to end poverty, why there are business cycles, why cities deteriorate as they sprawl into the habitats.   All these are economic problems for which economists have no answer. Or rather, they have dozens of answers, scores of answers. You’ll recall Samuelson saying that any good economics student could fill pages with  theories of depression.   Yes, it’s certainly complicated. But the complications are not in the science, but in the minds of the scientists.   Harry   ******************************* Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655  Tujunga  CA 91042 818 352-4141 *******************************     From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ed Weick Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 2:42 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'Keith Hudson'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca Subject: Re: [Futurework] More on Ireland   Too simple, Harry.  There are many things other than standard economic solutions that determine whether or not countries can or cannot work together.   Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: Harry Pollard To: 'Ed Weick' ; 'Keith Hudson' ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 4:45 PM Subject: RE: [Futurework] More on Ireland   Ed,   It will hold together with free trade.   They had a chance to link together as a free trade community with minimum interference with each other’s internal structure – but rather welded together in a community of interest, or they could form an expensive Goliath to compete with the other one across the Atlantic.   They chose the second. Forgotten in this ‘Grand Gest’ was that the economic strength of the US rests on the free trade structure between the states. (One can imagine what would have happened if the States had Balkanized behind tariff and quota barriers!)   At least the French have turned down their monstrous “Constitution”. Haven’t yet heard the Dutch result – but they’ll probably turn it down too.   Good riddance!   Harry   ******************************* Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655  Tujunga  CA 91042 818 352-4141 *******************************

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