A Permanent Solution to the Down Economy

The government cannot permanently spend our way out of recession. Its so-called investments will, on average, lose money. Otherwise, the private sector would have funded them. And such investments are, on average, unlikely to kick-start the private economy to the extent necessary to replace our tax dollars.

So eventually the tax dollars needed to fund those government schemes will run out and the government will have to stop the programs or print more money, reducing the value of our savings.

The long-term answer: Create a nation of ethical entrepreneurs: people who know how to identify unmet needs (for example, in-home companions for shut-ins) and develop and execute an ethical business plan for meeting that need.

That would not only improve society, it would increase the chances of millions more Americans, especially the not-academically-oriented, to make a good living. Today, so many such people struggle to pay the rent, spend so much time looking for their next job and after landing one, living in fear of getting laid off because of a personality dispute, it's a project job with a built-in end date, or that their job will be shipped to a low-cost country. Instead, a nation of entrepreneurs will be hiring themselves as their own business's CEO.

How to create a nation of entrepreneurs? From kindergarten through college, the curriculum should include hands-on opportunities to learn ethical entrepreneurialism. How would that fit into the school day? Lengthen the school day and school year, which brings the additional advantage of ameliorating the nation's child care problem. Also, pare elements of the existing curriculum that are less important than entrepreneurship. Does anyone want to defend that, for example, it's more important that all students know geometric theorems than learn entrepreneurship? How about understanding Shakespeare's arcana? The intricacies of the periodic table of chemical elements? How about all those wars from the Peloponnesian to the War of the Roses? The endless celebration of multiculturalism suffused throughout today's curriculum?

What do you think?

Ben Casnocha Interviews Marty Nemko

Ben Casnocha just interviewed me.TDTV #4: Ben Casnocha and Marty Nemko.

My affect was too flat and the hat looks stupid but I hope you'll find the content of value. The topics I talked about:

• advice for worklife success in a lousy economy
• the wisdom of championing unpopular causes that you believe in
• why the future really is China
• romance is overrated
• the frightening acceleration of media bias
• the case against work/life balance
• that life's goal should be productivity and contentment, not happiness

The interview runs 35 minutes.

The Recession Can Actually Help You

American society has been built on the notion that you can spend your way to contentment. That has never been true, as most wealthy people will privately admit. They'll acknowledge they're on the hedonic treadmill, in which buying something new gives pleasure for an ever briefer time, forcing them to ever buy more and more expensive things to derive an ever briefer buyer's rush.

But now, the economy is not only in recession but has crushing structural problems:

• Massive deficits and unfunded liabilities such as the Medicare Monster.
• Poor ethics from top to bottom: from CEOs who encourage or condone ill-begotten profits to healthy workers who steal sick days, to priests who abuse parishioners, to students who cheat on tests (3/4 of high school and college students do.)
  
• Uncontrolled immigration.
• The growing trend to "redistributive justice," which reallocates resources from those most likely to boost the economy (businesses and above-average-income individuals) to society's lowest-achieving people. That short-term pleasure/long-term pain trend will only accelerate with a Democrat president. (Alas, I can't vote for an anti-choice, big-spending Republican. Where's a Philosopher King when you need one?)
  
• A badly dysgenic birth rate, in which the people likely to contribute least to society have the most children.
  
• Mixed-ability school classes ensuring racial equality but also that everyone learns less than they could and should.

Those factors combined with China and India's ascendancy will cause the U.S. economy to keep declining.

As a result, ever more Americans will be forced to find non-spending paths to contentment. My suggestions for the most likely sources of contentment:

• A mission--either in your career, avocation, or serving God. (I'm an atheist but I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that many people find great contentment in their religion.)
• A deep love--of a romantic partner, child, protege, or mentor.
• A consuming hobby: writing, participation in community theatre, gardening, music, art, etc.
• A determination to do as many good things as possible: random acts of kindness, uncommon courtesies, honesty when it benefits someone at your expense, etc.