Tapsearch Com EditorIs it a money crisis or human nature crisis
December 4th 2008 23:23
By Ray Tapajna, Editor and Artist at Tapart News and Art that Talks and Lost Worlds in the Globalist Flat World
In college, as a history major, I had to spend a semester writing
history. I was assigned the topic of New Harmony which was a
communitarian work community during the 1800s. The bible passage of all
sharing as one in community has haunted us for centuries. It still does.
I did not like the topic but my professor insisted that I do it while
the rest of the class were allowed to choose their topic. The biblical description of the first Christians sharing all things in common is an unending study. The application of it throughout history was either a failure or ended in things like Communism that did more harm than good centering on this ideal.
In his book, The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan picked New Harmony as
an example of why the free market is better than utopian experiments. He
tied human nature to economics saying the so called free market is best
at accomodating human nature. He went into New Harmony extensively but
left things out of his book that I thought were more important. He did
not discuss the free enterprise system. The term free enterprise was not even in the
index of his book. He never discussed the Lend Lease program which I
thought was very significant in evaluating free trade in our times. He
minimized the success of the Marshall Plan that helped restore local
economies in Europe and Asia after World War 2 based on the U.S. awesome
industrial might. The absense of these examples and his emphasis on a
small communtarian work community experiment confused me. After the
current money crisis, he told Congress that he was surprised the
financial communities did not police themselves as if human nature was
supposed to do this in his free market global economic arena.
Apparently, human nature did not behave the way Alan Greenspan expected
in the free market. Conservatives and Liberatarians also tend to think
human nature will work unfair things out in the global economic arena.
Now it is quite evident, human nature has worked the other way around.
The financial markets and the stock market are now subsidized and they
can no longer talk above the crowd. They are on a charity roll like
everyone else. They can not longer look you straight in the eyes and
ask - I worked hard to attain the things I have, why don't you have
yours? All are now subsidized. Human nature has been tested and failed
to pass the test of greed and money. Human dignity has been sacrificed
on the altar of greed and not much is said about it.
On the other end of things, a friend tells me that it is only human
nature to seek the lowest price for anything. This means consumerism is
in a contest with workers dignity. There should be a debate but there is
none. Apparently, both shoppers and investors do their thing without
reviewing the human conditions behind their transactions. The discussion
of human nature is also left out of the picture. In the end we have a
trade deficit that is the equivalent of about $50,000 for every family
in America to buy a home and this directly is now part of the money
crisis. Still little is said about the trade deficit and free trade as
being a part of our current financial storm. One person's loss is a win
for another person. Is this human nature? When will the debate begin?
When will the news outlets report it this as an important background story
behind the financial storms of our times.
Ray Tapajna
14524 Orchard Park
Cleveland, Ohio 44111
216-671-6263
Big Government marries Big Money. Human Nature in crisis
In college, as a history major, I had to spend a semester writing
history. I was assigned the topic of New Harmony which was a
communitarian work community during the 1800s. The bible passage of all
sharing as one in community has haunted us for centuries. It still does.
I did not like the topic but my professor insisted that I do it while
the rest of the class were allowed to choose their topic. The biblical description of the first Christians sharing all things in common is an unending study. The application of it throughout history was either a failure or ended in things like Communism that did more harm than good centering on this ideal.
In his book, The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan picked New Harmony as
an example of why the free market is better than utopian experiments. He
tied human nature to economics saying the so called free market is best
at accomodating human nature. He went into New Harmony extensively but
left things out of his book that I thought were more important. He did
not discuss the free enterprise system. The term free enterprise was not even in the
index of his book. He never discussed the Lend Lease program which I
thought was very significant in evaluating free trade in our times. He
minimized the success of the Marshall Plan that helped restore local
economies in Europe and Asia after World War 2 based on the U.S. awesome
industrial might. The absense of these examples and his emphasis on a
small communtarian work community experiment confused me. After the
current money crisis, he told Congress that he was surprised the
financial communities did not police themselves as if human nature was
supposed to do this in his free market global economic arena.
Apparently, human nature did not behave the way Alan Greenspan expected
in the free market. Conservatives and Liberatarians also tend to think
human nature will work unfair things out in the global economic arena.
Now it is quite evident, human nature has worked the other way around.
The financial markets and the stock market are now subsidized and they
can no longer talk above the crowd. They are on a charity roll like
everyone else. They can not longer look you straight in the eyes and
ask - I worked hard to attain the things I have, why don't you have
yours? All are now subsidized. Human nature has been tested and failed
to pass the test of greed and money. Human dignity has been sacrificed
on the altar of greed and not much is said about it.
On the other end of things, a friend tells me that it is only human
nature to seek the lowest price for anything. This means consumerism is
in a contest with workers dignity. There should be a debate but there is
none. Apparently, both shoppers and investors do their thing without
reviewing the human conditions behind their transactions. The discussion
of human nature is also left out of the picture. In the end we have a
trade deficit that is the equivalent of about $50,000 for every family
in America to buy a home and this directly is now part of the money
crisis. Still little is said about the trade deficit and free trade as
being a part of our current financial storm. One person's loss is a win
for another person. Is this human nature? When will the debate begin?
When will the news outlets report it this as an important background story
behind the financial storms of our times.
Ray Tapajna
14524 Orchard Park
Cleveland, Ohio 44111
216-671-6263
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