At some point I will start writing again in complete sentences and paragraphs. But right now I’m better off doing little brain dumps. Here are the pieces/principles that make up “We Have More Power to Create a Just Economy Than We Think We Do.”
1) Everyone Should Have a Real Say
Best way to ensure economy works [...]
Tags: Model
The last framework dump I did was a definite “stumbling towards” – it had a lot of good pieces, but it didn’t add up. I’m having trouble figuring out why, so I’m going to try a different tack. The literature on solving “wicked problems” says that one of the keys to success is getting the [...]
Tags: Model
Economists are slippery bunch. In public fights over policy, many folks claim economic theory proves that markets are paragons of efficiency and that the government should mostly butt out – and economists often aid and abet this line of attack. Exhibit A: the efforts under President Clinton to loosen banking regulations, which made the 2008 [...]
Tags: Language
A few weeks ago, Gingrich made a splash by declaring war on lazy poor kids.
“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid.
“You say to somebody, you shouldn’t go to work before you’re what, 14, 16 years of age, fine. [...]
Tags: Emotional Map of an Economy · Finance
Another try at scratch draft of the framework. A lot of this is in shorthand; after I’ve let this draft sit for a few days, if it feels like a good direction to pursue, I’ll start fleshing out more details.
Most people feel like big corporations and the rich have been doing great while the rest [...]
Tags: Model
I’ve been playing around with another way of pulling together the pieces of my framework, and I’ve gotten stuck. To help me get unstuck, here’s a brain dump of what I’ve been thinking about:
If our economy isn’t “natural” and wasn’t inevitable, then what is the alternative? How do we create a more just economy that [...]
Tags: Model
In an American Prospect article, Robert Kuttner reviews an interesting book by Yochai Benkler, “the pioneering expert on the economics of collaborative networks as facilitated by the Internet,” called The Penguin and the Leviathan on: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest:
[the book] uses examples as diverse as Zipcar, Wikipedia, open-source software, and Chicago’s [...]
Tags: Model
Wrestling with what I learned last week, I’ve realized that part of the problem is that I’m not clear enough on who I’m arguing with. So for the moment, here are four perspectives on shaping the economy that I need to respond to.
1) “We just need the right policies” (a.k.a. no power)
2) “We just [...]
Tags: Model
I think I’ve figured out a pretty strong beginning. In shorthand:
The economy isn’t working for most of us — and we don’t think we can do anything about it. It’s just the way it is.
But it’s not. The economy we have today wasn’t natural or inevitable — and it was better before (”the middle-class was [...]
Tags: Model
Here’s another way of posing the problem I need to solve:
Many people think, “the world sucks: the rich and big corporations are doing great, and the rest of us are struggling to keep our heads above water. But that’s the way it is. It’s the law of the jungle.”
I need a response that gets us [...]
Tags: Model
