I found this to be really striking and candid conversation. On the one hand, you have an entrepreneur delivering the typical line: start a company, make something of yourself. And on the other, an economist and financial trader saying that 1) not everyone is an entrepreneur, 2) it’s getting harder and harder to do that, and not a lot of people succeeded to begin with, 3) we have to take care of the rest of society or… bad things happen, 4) it’s actually easier for entrepreneurs to succeed if the population at large has disposable income.
Gary didn’t talk about it but typically civil war or revolution are the result if inequality gets bad enough.
I think that Gary’s basic premise is that we’re at the end of the Monopoly game where one player owns everything, and continued play will predictably amplify their wealth while everyone else’s turn becomes a “pass”.
One way to make the game fun again could be through taxing and forceable redistribution of wealth. Trump seems to be proposing something like this, except of course he’s trying to get other countries to foot the bill so that the wealthy here can keep on making money.
But lets say in the absence of meaningful and helpful federal reform, are there things that we could do locally to get the gears of our economy turning?
I think there are two interesting possibilities:
- development of local crypto-currencies
- non-monetary exchange
On the subject of non-monetary exchange, the Amish are famous for doing “barn raisings” where the whole community comes together to build a new structure. This is how the Pueblo Indians built (and maybe still build) their homes as well.
If you think about building “the means of production” the initial investment for structures and infrastructure could pay off 10 fold. And may end up bringing more wealth and opportunities into the community. This morning in Paonia I saw the crew at Coal Country assembling their farm stand from discount cuttings from the saw mill. This is a great example of innovation with what is on hand to offer something unique and novel to the community. How can we encourage and support more developments like this?
Maybe its just a culture thing, and having the people who care enough to make it happen.
On the subject of community crypto currency, one of the things this would allow us to do is purpose our collective USD towards buying fuel, technology, and tools, while circulating the local currency for food, labor, and healthcare. So again, we could focus the resources we have towards building productive capacity rather than sitting idle, or leaving the local economy unnecessarily.
What do you think we can do to boost the economy, even in the absence of federal or state reform?
Do you resonate more with the entrepreneurial or the economist viewpoint in the video above?
For those still working: Do you see hope for a better future for yourself? What would make a difference for you?