Lack of confidence underpins current economic malaise
To the editor:
Americans faith in government and institutions continues to erode. Yet, what is even more alarming, is our loss of faith in free market capitalism. People just don’t buy into the “free” part of it anymore. Manipulation in the form of vested interest bailouts, entitlement funding to secure voter loyalty and arcane and difficult rules for taxation and equity market investing has left middle America soured to a degree not seen since the Great Depression.
In that Depression the saving Grace was that those who were failing were allowed to fail. Also, we still maintained a gold standard that kept confidence in the US dollar up even as the supply for most folks was scarce. These two factors, which in the opinion of many historians, allowed us to come through that Depression and attain greater prosperity is missing from the current economic malaise.
All a person has to do is look at what few asset classed are actually thriving and they will understand it is only those with little or no counter party risk; i.e., precious metals like gold and, less publicized, farmland. Yes, despite anemic markets in most real estate, farmland values have been doing very well. Folks are looking to hold values in something that is not subject to manipulation by the government or financial markets. That is the long and short of the meteoric rise in gold values, commodities and farmland. They have risen not because people are enamored with them, or filled with “gold lust”; they are simply the everyday peoples way of expressing and coping with their utter lack of confidence in the “establishment”. They want tangible goods they can hold in their hands that have a quality of real so lacking in the surreal landscape home to government and the now “not-so-free” markets. Goods where value can’t be easily made or destroyed by rules, regulations and events that seem too far away for most of us.
There really could be a silver lining in the pain that is facing us as we attempt to deal with decades of rampant deficit spending by those we have continued to elect (and we must bear some of the responsibility here since our votes have enabled this behavior). Personal and family values may be on the rise for some. With over 46 million now classes as below the poverty line and one in seven or eight on food assistance, kids have been forced to move back in with their parents forming closer extended families, people are car pooling once again and stay at home and neighborhood entertainment is back in vogue. Of course, many are moving into the Mac Mansions with plenty of room, riding in SUV’s and entertaining with Hi Def home theater, so it is certainly not sacrificial in the classic sense. Nevertheless, this may be the unintended but saving Grace of our current problems; a return to a concept of “value” that embraces more than consumer goods and out of control capitalism.
Carl Conley
Fort Myers Beach
(ITALICS) Mr. Conley worked as a local publisher and editor for more than 10 years on the Beach and was a Golden Quill finalist in editorial writing. He also served as the Chairman for the Chamber of Commerce where he is now the Immediate Past Chairman. He continues to address local issues continuing his passion for writing.