How might the presidential aspirations of Joe Biden benefit from Albert Einstein-type thinking? Well, Biden could adapt by thinking somewhat more “outside the box.” But that would be an understatement.
An illustration? Biden’s policy advisors could approach economic doctrine akin to the way in which Einstein approached Newtonian physics. He viewed Isaac Newton as brilliant, but also hemmed in by his underlying 18th Century view of orderliness; by visions of a world with too many “closed boxes.”
What if we relaxed the Newtonian concept of macroeconomic orderliness? How might an Einstein-type perspective look?
Well for starters, we won’t always force saving into contrived equilibrium with investment. Indeed, what if economic disequilibrium is allowed as the norm, more so than equilibrium? Then, what if Biden’s policy people set saving equal to investment plus a mystery variable? We’ll call the mystery variable, hoarding.
An Einstein-type approach ought to focus more on disorder rather than order, and therefore less on changing behaviors of savers as investors, and more on changing the behaviors of savers as hoarders. These are pseudo-capitalists who portray themselves as legitimate investors, but whose behaviors don’t actually benefit the common good.
Well, more on this momentarily. We’ll be speaking about possible policy responses to rigging, gaming and other hoarding schemes that reduce productivity and increase wealth concentrations in the hands of a privileged few. We’ll be speaking about vulture capitalism. And we’ll be speaking about how to turn vulture capitalism/pseudo-capitalism around.
Are you listening, Joe Biden?
~Jim Sawyer
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