Preparing to Fight Austerity & Adversity - With Short, Medium & Long Term Efforts

commentary by Roger Erickson

In Australia, Bill Mitchell receives more welcome by union & civic organizers than heterodox economists here in the states do. In a recent article about regional growth in Australia, Bill says to the Clarence Valley Community Unions:

"Very few can grow on their own effort when there is a hostile external environment."*

[Yet some can, and all could - if they'd had more practice at taking initiative!]

Responding to the regional Unions:

[Bill] said he will give an evidence-based approach on how the Clarence Valley will overcome this loss of jobs and while there were a number of things a region can do, state and federal governments must also have an input.

Well said.  Yet it's a bad sign that most think they need an expert from somewhere else to solve problems.  A dependent attitude slows any attempt to organize, and ultimately slows the rate of exploring options.  It seems that the bulk of the population has been COLONIZED by the 1%, into a state of dependency!

This lesson shows that there's still a very fundamental, underlying problem with how we run policy, unions and schools. Whole communities lack adequate situational awareness. Writers from Socrates to Napoleon to the present time have lamented that particular lack as the chief calamity for military generals and whole populations.  Worse yet, our communities and unions don't even set up enough ways to practice acquiring situational awareness!  Can you imagine a basketball team that never holds basketball practices, and instead only reads old books on the subject?  Changing coaches wouldn't be the only requirement for success.

It's a pity that our own educators and unions aren't exploring more options here in the USA. Even labor unions here are captured by orthodox economists more interested in maintaining their personal prestige, and incomes than in actually shaping their client's situations.  

*Every process is too important to be left to the presumed process owner, as Bill alludes to above.

If you're in a union or on a town council, please consider inviting Mosler, Wray or other members of the monetary operations community to widen your perspectives on short, medium & long term methods for accelerating economic development.