It's all feeling a bit deja vu these days. Have you noticed that the public mindset of cheerily spend spend spend of really just last summer has already flipped to the cheery save save save? It's in the ads, it's certainly in the political agenda and apparently it is also in the newspapers and they are talking about your kitchen:
After some experiments, I’ve found that we can indeed make pasta in just a few cups of water and save a good deal of energy. Not that much in your kitchen or mine — just the amount needed to keep a burner on high for a few more minutes. But Americans cook something like a billion pounds of pasta a year, so those minutes could add up. My rough figuring indicates an energy savings at the stove top of several trillion B.T.U.s. At the power plant, that would mean saving 250,000 to 500,000 barrels of oil, or $10 million to $20 million at current prices. Significant numbers, though these days they sound like small drops in a very large pot.
We are all in this together, folks. The tone of the times is shifting and I don't think we are looking at the cocooning of recession of the early 90s. We are in a full blown social movement, are we not? Economics meets Miss Manners - "should" and "shouldn't" are being revisited. Last night, the call was for the nation to pull together. The hero is the man who gives it away. What will you do for us today?
These are bad times to be a libertarian. Who cares about the appetite of the whacked Randian? Didn't that get us in this mess?
Comments
Ben (The Tiger) - February 25, 2009 9:25 am
It actually didn't.
Do-gooderism in the real estate market did.
But we are where we are, and if the people want politicians who want bigger government, they'll get it.
Seanie - February 25, 2009 9:41 am
I can honestly say I never use the massive amount of recommended water for making pasta.
That aside, I am beginning to embrace general political apathy and self protectionism. I am no longer ever watching the news unless it pertains to me and mine directly. I buy what I need and what I can afford to want. I was already a frugalmeister so no change there. Meh I say MEH!
Alan - February 25, 2009 10:06 am
Ben: the credit default swap fault debacle - the reason why the market was setting up the loonie mortgages in the first place - is a pure Randian play taken to the absurd (if that isn't an oxymoron). The regulation of the market place reduced to watch 50 or 60 billion in debt obligations being leveraged against absolutely nothing. The equivalent of the neocon idiocy that was going to be such a parade that no reconstruction planning was needed.
Temujin - February 25, 2009 12:57 pm
<i>the reason why the market was setting up the loonie mortgages in the first place - is a pure Randian play taken to the absurd (if that isn't an oxymoron).</i>
Pure Hogwash, Alan. You are still making the mistake of equating Alan Greenspan with Objectivism. He may have been one 40 years ago but his actions as Fed Chair (in fact, his accepting the position of Fed Chair) are pretty much anathema to all things Randian. Indeed, they were anathema to Greenspan at one time.
Blaming this on Rand and the Objectivists and an unregulated market is disingenuous at best, and an outright lie at worst.
<i>Do-gooderism in the real estate market did.</i>
Yep.
Temujin - February 25, 2009 12:59 pm
How many times have I used formatting here, and yet this morning I forget about 'em', and us 'i' instead.
I shall be sulking in the corner, if anyone needs me.
Alan - February 25, 2009 2:24 pm
No problem with that. We all have our HTML moments.
But Hogwash!!! You have resorted to the "H" word? The link from Rand to Greenspan is direct and cannot be underestimated in the seeding of these ideas throughout the right wing of fiscal policy discourse. The refusal to entertain regulation and allowing the market to create it's own inventions through a warped understanding of the connection between the drive to maximize and the governing nature of human ethics. We have the fiction of credit default swap directly because of the influence of Rand on those running the marketplace.
Wickedness.
Hans - February 25, 2009 4:18 pm
I think the irony is that those Wall Street types that wanted an unregulated marketplace where they could make up new financial devices to sell and bet against are the same bunch that are now whining from their private jets for bail-outs from the government. So the free market is the thing except when the going gets tough? What a bunch of babies and hypocrites!
Alan - February 25, 2009 4:48 pm
I think hogwash is a better "H" word than even hypocrites.
Ben (The Tiger) - February 25, 2009 5:23 pm
I strongly support letting the Wall Street types stew in their own juices...