-----Original Message----- From: Kurt Buff [mailto:[email protected]] Subject: Re: Would this be good for IT, or what? (UNCLASSIFIED)
On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 2:52 PM, Ken Schaefer <[email protected]> wrote: >> And for the other major sector of the economy (the government) – if they >> couldn't borrow either, the Depression would have been much worse (Maynard >> Keynes – a rather famous economist – wrote a rather revolutionary book on >> aggregate demand and equilibrium in the economy). > > As a non-productive entity, the government doesn't contribute to the > economy, it is a drag on the economy. Keynes was wrong on just about > all counts. I went to Uni and got a degree with a major in Economics. I'm reasonably appraised on major theories of economics, and whilst Keynes wasn't right about everything, theories on aggregate demand and equilibrium are pretty mainstream (you'll find them in any first year economics text). > For a better understanding, try Murray Rothbard's or Ludwig von Mises' > works, but not Milton Friedman. Let's keep your views on the role of government out of the debate. I'm not talking about the desirability of the government regulation vs libertarian social order. And I don't want to start discussions about whether Hayek is great or whatever. I tend to find that people who dismiss, out of hand, pillars of the profession, as generally ideological and not accepting of discussion. I'm accepting the current reality that there are three major injectors of demand into an economy (consumers, business and government) and pointing out that the ability to access credit (or debt or whatever you want to call it) to smooth out fluctuations in income, or to take advantage of investment opportunities etc has made the economy far larger than it would otherwise be, as well as allow people to satisfy desires/needs they wouldn't otherwise be able to. This isn't a socio-political statement - it's a statement about economics. I'm not interested in the debating the desirability of government - let's just take that government exists at the moment regardless of whether we like it or not, and figure out whether debt is good/bad in that context. Cheers Ken ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
