IGM Economics

Inter-Galactic Memo

To: homo sapiens
Fr: W. Leavitt, Crypto-homo sapiens
Re: economics


According to the Daily Telegraph today, the Bank of London has lowered its interest rate to 1.5 percent, the lowest in its 315 year history. Wow, that’s an old bank.
Experts are saying however (and this applies to us,) that the rate-cut will not help rank and file citizens. Apparently it’s not the interest rate, however low, that will help people survive—it is the amount of money available to loan, and in England at least, there isn’t any.
Sounds familiar, eh? Over here, on the “other side of the pond” we face the same dilemma; interest rates have fallen, thanks to the Fed, but banks are not lending any money. I don’t know if they don’t have any or are just being tight, but the outcome is the same. Obama says he’s going to fix that, and as we speak (according to unnamed sources) the presses are running full-bore, printing as much as a trillion dollars as part of a massive new incentive program. Big rebates to tax-payers. Of course, over 30 % of adult Americans don’t pay any taxes, and they will receive the same rebate as everyone else, which makes a good portion of this “incentive” a re-distribution of wealth program, exactly as promised. The incentive, in other words, is for people not to work, create, or produce, but to wait for their dole check instead. Yippee!
Most of us, I believe, are in favor of some kind of welfare program to take care of the infirm, the elderly, and others who legitimately are not able to care for themselves. I know I am. In most cases, for example, I would rather pay the bills for unwed and single mothers than have them in the workforce which necessitates someone else caring for their children. (Not everyone agrees with me, but there is a good deal of evidence that mothers and fathers, in almost all cases, are better suited to care for their own children, and do a better job of it, than even the best surrogates—what a shock.)
But I have a problem with the government paying annual stipends to the indolent. Especially when the money raises our deficit every year. What do we do with the indolent then? Let nature take its course? I think we would be amazed at how many people are suddenly able to work when all sources of free money dry up. As for the rest . . . maybe some private organizations will want to help them. Other wise I guess they will die. Everything does . . . eventually.