This is a response to PG's comment about social, behavioral change. It is worth understanding the fundamental economic underpinning of this.
Two observations or assertions: a) People have more debt than a generation ago b) People have less leisure today than a generation ago.
These two assertions seem broadly true world-wide. As an example, young people can observe how many of their college-educated peers are graduating with excessive levels of debt. These two are connected - in fact, I believe (a) causes (b), to the extent that you can determine causation in social science.
Now who caused (a) i.e the culture of debt? Answer: Government policy, in particular central bank policy. Ultimately, money is credit in a fiat system, so when we talk about "Fed creating money out of thin air", they are really creating credit (i.e debt instruments) out of thin air. Eventually, cascading layers of debt entraps most of the population - corporations and individuals alike.
Debt causes serious cultural and social changes. Keynes had this right:
There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.
This is a response to PG's comment about social, behavioral change. It is worth understanding the fundamental economic underpinning of this.
Two observations or assertions: a) People have more debt than a generation ago b) People have less leisure today than a generation ago.
These two assertions seem broadly true world-wide. As an example, young people can observe how many of their college-educated peers are graduating with excessive levels of debt. These two are connected - in fact, I believe (a) causes (b), to the extent that you can determine causation in social science.
Now who caused (a) i.e the culture of debt? Answer: Government policy, in particular central bank policy. Ultimately, money is credit in a fiat system, so when we talk about "Fed creating money out of thin air", they are really creating credit (i.e debt instruments) out of thin air. Eventually, cascading layers of debt entraps most of the population - corporations and individuals alike.
Debt causes serious cultural and social changes. Keynes had this right:
There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.