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This concept of an economy as some sort of Platonic ideal, disconnected from the processes of the polity in which it exists, is very odd to me. It seems like h
by throwanem 7y ago
This concept of an economy as some sort of Platonic ideal, disconnected from the processes of the polity in which it exists, is very odd to me.
It seems like having your heart stop and saying it isn't a "real" emergency, because the organs are all still there and ready to get back to work as soon as oxygenated blood starts arriving again. Sure, that's true for a minute or so, maybe two if you're young and healthy. After that...
- mercer 7y agoFor those who have completely surrendered to 'the economy', mostly neoliberal/laissez-faire, this is par for the course.
- chasd00 7y agowell take the analogy further, in this case to save the patient's life you have to stop the heart from beating for a time but that doesn't imply the patient has suffered a heart attack.
- throwanem 7y agoIn that case, the analogy is to open-heart surgery, which typically results in significantly reduced capacity for a long time at best, and often permanently. It's certainly not something you bounce back from quickly or easily, and even if you're young and in perfect physical health, you have to be pretty lucky to come back all the way. Staying within the increasingly strained analogy, I don't think it is reasonable to describe the US economy as "young" or "in perfect physical health", or indeed even as anywhere close to either of those. This is more like doing an emergency sextuple bypass on an obese 70-year-old with a lifelong pack-a-day habit - even if the patient comes off the table alive, it's going to take a long and careful period of physical therapy and recovery to keep him that way, and he's almost certainly never going to recover all of even the limited capacity he had before the crisis.