Bill OReilly
America's Tensioned Prosperity
20/May/2009 09:38 Filed in: Weekly
Column
This week’s
Chronicle begins our 11th year of somewhat
consistent weekly publication. Through it all I
have learned that there are many diverse indicators
of wealth, the most important is the Biblical
promise of eternal life, and earthly money being
perhaps one of the least significant.
As we continue to muddle through a worldwide economic kerfuffle caused by a quarter of a century of cheap, or valueless monetary expansion, about the only other things we know for sure is that there is pretty much an exponential gain in kerfuffle pundits and pundit kerfuffles. This weekly Wonder Springs offering being one of the few exceptions, offering vignettes of true reality based upon direct observational natural science, mixed with gems of satire and humor, and not limited by energetic realities of an enterprise bottom line. That is because in this enterprise there is currently no bottom line.
In that illumination, last week we briefly suggested that American prosperity was not the result of the fruits of capitalism, or the appreciation of a benevolent government helping out the folks. Rather American prosperity is really the results of human best intentions, working out differently than the programs, and sometimes much better than the plans. That enlightenment clearly shows that America rose to power in spite of bungled best efforts of her citizens. In those old days we called it the grace of God. In this present era, the consequences of God, any god other than ourselves, is too frightening to consider. Hence we spin the present, in hopes that the future, will look like the past.
This week we will somewhat enlarge upon the synopsis offered last week, suggesting that what really happened in the United States, and which has not happened in any other country, is really a tension between private enterprise and government which has really created a symbiosis enhancing the results of the American experiment.
What caused the financial crisis in the United States and we exported to the rest of the world is really the breakdown of that tension, or entropy of that process. Instead beginning, not so much with the Reagan Revolution, but rather the insidious growth of the monetary base freed from natural prosperity, was the rise of classes of special rights – special interests. In other words cheap money allowed the enlightened, in some aspect, to take advantage of everyone else. Carried to its logical conclusion we lost and lose both the unique aspects of individual freedom and liberty, but also the cohesion of community, or civilization.
Read More...
As we continue to muddle through a worldwide economic kerfuffle caused by a quarter of a century of cheap, or valueless monetary expansion, about the only other things we know for sure is that there is pretty much an exponential gain in kerfuffle pundits and pundit kerfuffles. This weekly Wonder Springs offering being one of the few exceptions, offering vignettes of true reality based upon direct observational natural science, mixed with gems of satire and humor, and not limited by energetic realities of an enterprise bottom line. That is because in this enterprise there is currently no bottom line.
In that illumination, last week we briefly suggested that American prosperity was not the result of the fruits of capitalism, or the appreciation of a benevolent government helping out the folks. Rather American prosperity is really the results of human best intentions, working out differently than the programs, and sometimes much better than the plans. That enlightenment clearly shows that America rose to power in spite of bungled best efforts of her citizens. In those old days we called it the grace of God. In this present era, the consequences of God, any god other than ourselves, is too frightening to consider. Hence we spin the present, in hopes that the future, will look like the past.
This week we will somewhat enlarge upon the synopsis offered last week, suggesting that what really happened in the United States, and which has not happened in any other country, is really a tension between private enterprise and government which has really created a symbiosis enhancing the results of the American experiment.
What caused the financial crisis in the United States and we exported to the rest of the world is really the breakdown of that tension, or entropy of that process. Instead beginning, not so much with the Reagan Revolution, but rather the insidious growth of the monetary base freed from natural prosperity, was the rise of classes of special rights – special interests. In other words cheap money allowed the enlightened, in some aspect, to take advantage of everyone else. Carried to its logical conclusion we lost and lose both the unique aspects of individual freedom and liberty, but also the cohesion of community, or civilization.
Read More...