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<p>Nick -</p>
<p>I contemplate this question regularly. "What means 'the
economy' ?" The way it is bandied about in the public media and
among most circles I listen to, it is this big hairball of
exchange of goods and services facilitated by "money", both in the
form of currency and credit. Yet it is treated as if it is our
psychic (spiritual?) as well as physical lifeblood. <br>
</p>
<p>This abrupt interruption of *much* of that activity potentially
exposes a LOT about how much of a "false economy" we live
within. </p>
<p> Among the things that humans really need/want/value, I suspect
the "economy" we have grown creates goods and services that are
not of any particular use/interest/value to most (if any) of the
human population. Hard-line "invisible hand of the market"-eers
will insist that if it exists in our economy, that it *must* be of
interest/value/use to *many* (or at least some). Invoking the
idiom of "follow the money", I agree that we *can* follow a chain
of implied value that leads from the most marginal or absurd to
the common and mundane.</p>
<p>I defer to Abraham Maslow: <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs</a>
for an armature/prioritization of what human needs might *really*
be.</p>
<p>During this shutdown, I suspect *many* are discovering (getting
hints of) what truly is important to them and if they are being
self-observant, what their greatest fears (and hopes?) might be.
The trope "Guns, Germs, and Toilet Paper" erupted soon after the
shutdown and the abrupt/extreme shortage of disinfectants,
personal paper products, and ammunition/guns.</p>
<p>Returning to the core point: For anyone without the
currency/credit to trade for the goods/services they DO need, this
shutdown is already a huge problem. For those (like most if not
all on this list) *with* a decent reserve of currency/credit OR
the kind of job or enterprise which has it's own inertia or true
value in this context (e.g. Inertial: random professionals; True
Value: Health Care Workers, Critical Retail Workers, Internet
Engineers...) there is not an immediate problem with cash-flow,
and may in fact never be a problem. <br>
</p>
<p>Mangling Maslow: we all need air to breathe, (fairly clean)
water to drink, enough shelter from the elements to keep avoid
hyper (or hypo) thermia, and enough nutrients (and calories) to
keep the metabolism and growth/repair going. <br>
</p>
<p>It seems that (so far) the basic infrastructure (power, water,
natural gas, coal, transportation, communications) is all staying
solid... that they are either robust enough to not be hurt by the
disruptions or those who maintain them have the motivation to keep
them going in spite of the challenges to doing so (much of the
maintenance repair of such infrastructure is inherently socially
distanced?). We may whine/worry about our interwebs but even
those seem to be holding up. The power grid is probably mildly
stressed by shifting most of the use from commercial to
residential, and possibly is diminished (office buildings
under-heated/lit)?<br>
</p>
<p>I hear that the food depots around the country (first world?) are
in a multiple of demand of their normal level. I don't know if
the newly impoverished are taking precedence over the previous or
if they are just joining their ranks, or if these services are
coming close to matching the demand. I don't know if people are
going hungry(ier) than they were before... perhaps the flexibility
built into our social fabric (nuclear and extended families,
friends, neighbors, social services) has absorbed most of the
shock. Perhaps the congressional (in the US) stimulus funding is
trickling through to enough of the people to take the ragged edge
off for a week or a month. Perhaps the PPP loans are allowing
*some* of the small (and not so small) businesses to keep people
on payroll. Perhaps *some* of the unemployment funds in reserve
are getting to those who have formally lost their jobs (temporary
or long term). <br>
</p>
<p>Meanwhile there is produce in the fields, milk in the cow (and
storage), and meat on the hoof that is not being processed and
shipped to the restaurants that are closed or not being processed
because the people who do that work are out sick, or afraid of
coming to work where they likely will get sick (lack of PPE,
social distance, trust in co-worker's health), or afraid of coming
to work because they are NOT properly documented through our
foreign worker/immigration system or coming to work sick (and
therefore risking other's exposure) *because* they are outside the
legal system. This is a breakdown of our *heavily
industrialized* food supply system, which probably hasn't hit our
transportation/distribution systems (yet). Wholesale warehouse
workers and OTR drivers are probably *fairly* able to avoid
exposure/infection in their normal work. <br>
</p>
<p>It seems (deferring again to Maslow) that if we have the
(collective) *will* to keep our food-production/distribution
systems going, the basic infrastructure going, the MAIN (only?)
thing we *really* have to worry about is keeping our *attitudes*
and *priorities* under control. We *might* even be able to put
those previously without shelter in shelter (unused motels, second
homes, recreational vehicles?) and those without enough food with
healthy food (the underfed in our country was a tiny percentage
and not from lack of food, but from lack of will to get it to
those who need it), and the heat/coolth, and the clean (mostly)
water that comes along with the shelter. <br>
</p>
<p>Maybe I'm a "pinko/commie/flag" for suggesting it, but this
economic upset/reset is the perfect opportunity to renormalize
what kind of people/circumstances/behaviour we believe should not
be allowed (or deserve?) access to those bottom few levels of
Maslow. It can be (has been?) argued that these people need to
be incentivized to *participate* in our model of productive
society (economy) and that sacrificing their (mental and physical)
health and even their lives to the "greater good" of a (manic?)
consumerist-capitalist economy is just "collateral damage" (for
those old enough to remember the Vietnam War, this term is
probably a trigger).</p>
<p>I'm not trying to suggest that I know how to "get there from
here" or even what *there* would *really* look like, but I think
this global shut/slow-down has circumstantially moved us a LOT
closer to an "economy" that includes making sure that *everyone*
has reasonable access to the basics of Maslow's "physiological
needs".</p>
<p>My pessimistic homunculus (nod to Glen's term) thinks this
doesn't have a chance of happening and that in fact, just the
opposite will happen. A larger portion of our population will
(already has?) abruptly become financially unable to participate
in obtaining their physiological needs "the usual way" (day-job,
savings, credit, clever entrepreneurship), and those who *are*
able to meet their needs "the usual way" will conspire to allow
(encourage?) that. <br>
</p>
<p>My optimistic homunculus wants to believe otherwise. It wants to
believe that *many* of us will recognize that "but by the grace of
Gawdess" we could have fallen through the cracks of this pandemic
and through a sense of responsibility (or even shame or guilt -
Gawdelpus Forbid!) and maybe we can make sure nobody has to fall
through those cracks (tactical challenges abound, but
strategically I think this is trivial, even obvious?).</p>
<p>This demonstrates MY profound lack of understanding of how
economies work. It is quite possible that pinning down the idea
that *everyone* can/should/might do their very *best* to make sure
*everyone else* has their Maslow->Physiological/Safety needs
met and letting the rest find it's own level might not be
possible. it certainly doesn't make sense to *many*, especially
those who have locked down their own access to the full hierarchy
(many times over?) and think they need (yet much) more.</p>
<p>Right now the biggest threat within the agri-industrial complex
seems to be the meat supply. Pork, Beef, and Chicken. Eggs and
Dairy may go along with that. Remember a few months ago I think
we were listening to roughly *half* the population screaming
bloody murder that GreenDealers like AOC might be planning to take
away their bacon and mcNuggets and Steaks. It seems like maybe
the very fragility of the system that provides the bulk of those
products is going to take that away from them, whether POTUS45
throws down his War Powers trump-card on the factory-farms or not.</p>
<p>ramble, <br>
</p>
<p>- Steve</p>
<p>PS. Just saw that in Belgium, the public is asked to double
their french (freedom?) fry consumption to keep umpty-jillion
metric tonnes of potatoes from going to waste. Hmmmmm? "Let them
eat Fries!"<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Colleagues, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have asked this question before and
nobody has responded (for clear and good reasons, no doubt)
but I thought I would ask it again. What exactly is this
economy we are bent on reviving? What exactly is the
difference in human activity between our present state and a
revived economy. We can go to bars and concerts and football
games? Is that the economy we are reviving? It seems to me
that the difference between a “healty” economy and our present
status consists possibly in nothing more than a lot of people
frantically rushing about doing things they don’t really need
to do? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You recall that I invoked as a model that
experiment in which 24 rats were put in a quarter acre
enclosure in Baltimore and fed and watered and protected to
see how the population would develop. They never got above
two hundred. Infant mortality, etc., was appalling.
Carnage. In the same space, a competent lab breeding
organization could have kept a population of tens of
thousands. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Don’t yell at me. What fundamental
proposition about economics do I not understand? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nick <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nicholas Thompson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Emeritus Professor of Ethology and
Psychology<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Clark University<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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