3 ms·

These are all policy choices though. None of them are ordained by nature or inevitable. Being alive is much more than being economically viable. This kind of e

These are all policy choices though. None of them are ordained by nature or inevitable. Being alive is much more than being economically viable. This kind of economic thinking is alluring because it seems "objective" or "data driven" but it is really just an oversimplified model of the world. These models have long drifted from reflecting reality. Think of how DJT won two elections despite what all the data said. The data did not reflect reality. The idea that modern peasants exist or that they do not add to economic output certainly reflects the data. But the data is useless if it does not reflect reality.

elcritch 2y ago
Reminds me of an article by Yanis Varoufakis - a leftist economist / politician - I saw posted in an HN comment recently [1]. My interpretation of it was that the petrodollar effectively undermines middle class Americans by artificially inflating the dollar, undermining American workers with cheap imports and loss of jobs in favor of multinationals. That argument makes a lot of sense to me. The importance of financial sectors are exaggerated. Ever increasing federal debt acts as a tax on other nations though that wealth doesn't goto the average American. It skews wealth to a few sectors. E.g. The economic data is correct but measures a distorted system. > Their thinking [centrists] is hard-wired onto a misconception of how capital, trade and money move around the globe. Like the brewer who gets drunk on his own ale, centrists ended up believing their own propaganda: that we live in a world of competitive markets where money is neutral and prices adjust to balance the demand and the supply of everything. The unsophisticated Trump is, in fact, far more sophisticated than them in that he understands how raw economic power, not marginal productivity, decides who does what to whom — both domestically and internationally. 1: https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/02/21/donald-trumps-economic-masterplan-unherd/ https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/02/21/donald-trumps-econ...
bm3719 2y ago
Arguably, we've let metrics rule in the same way the Soviets optimized for steel and wheat production, but instead for pure economic market signals. Doing so, we see a market strongly signaling that it has a peasant surplus. Unfortunately for them, peasants are (presumably) conscious beings, so suffering ensues. If the 2024 DJT win is to be interpreted as a peasant revolt against this system, perhaps it's one that is attempting to use the non-market force of government to create new Schelling points (mostly via protectionism) that meet libidinal (more in the Mark Fisher sense, less Lyotard) desires. Procreation is literally libidinal, after all, so we can see how powerful our system's market forces must be to completely override it.

elcritch 2y ago

Reminds me of an article by Yanis Varoufakis - a leftist economist / politician - I saw posted in an HN comment recently [1]. My interpretation of it was that the petrodollar effectively undermines middle class Americans by artificially inflating the dollar, undermining American workers with cheap imports and loss of jobs in favor of multinationals. That argument makes a lot of sense to me. The importance of financial sectors are exaggerated. Ever increasing federal debt acts as a tax on other nations though that wealth doesn't goto the average American. It skews wealth to a few sectors. E.g. The economic data is correct but measures a distorted system. > Their thinking [centrists] is hard-wired onto a misconception of how capital, trade and money move around the globe. Like the brewer who gets drunk on his own ale, centrists ended up believing their own propaganda: that we live in a world of competitive markets where money is neutral and prices adjust to balance the demand and the supply of everything. The unsophisticated Trump is, in fact, far more sophisticated than them in that he understands how raw economic power, not marginal productivity, decides who does what to whom — both domestically and internationally. 1: https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/02/21/donald-trumps-economic-masterplan-unherd/ https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/02/21/donald-trumps-econ...

bm3719 2y ago

Arguably, we've let metrics rule in the same way the Soviets optimized for steel and wheat production, but instead for pure economic market signals. Doing so, we see a market strongly signaling that it has a peasant surplus. Unfortunately for them, peasants are (presumably) conscious beings, so suffering ensues. If the 2024 DJT win is to be interpreted as a peasant revolt against this system, perhaps it's one that is attempting to use the non-market force of government to create new Schelling points (mostly via protectionism) that meet libidinal (more in the Mark Fisher sense, less Lyotard) desires. Procreation is literally libidinal, after all, so we can see how powerful our system's market forces must be to completely override it.