If we truly had a heart?
It finally dawned on me, more viscerally*, that there are of course always at least 2 phases of class warfare going on simultaneously, with repercussions for local policy agility.
1) upper vs lower classes within one region/nation
(e.g., royalty vs serfs)
2) uneasy stipulations on allowable behavioral deviance, across Upper Looting Classes of cooperating regions (or neighboring gangs and political-parties [same thing])
(e.g., it was complicated, but multiple nations attacked & were attacked by France post-1792, over fear the French revolution might/might-not be exported, like the Arab spring; dueling policies of containment vs expansion :) )
Other examples?
~1850 Mississippi, a plantation owner teaching his slaves to read & write might be threatened or killed by other plantation owners
2013 - any attempt by, say, Japan [even India?] to boost it's aggregate demand at the expense of letting it's Fx truly float ... would be met with outrage from the Upper Looting Class of other nations, who would instantly label it as a "currency war";
(what could Japan do if they were really innovative? voluntarily halt exports to any & all offended nations? :) )
Yet if we really had a heart - or brains - is that what we'd do, let Fx float & auto-balance labor/merchant tax ratios? "Damn the Fx, Full aggregate demand ahead!" Abandon uselessly punitive FICA/Medicare taxes as well?
*(Had to do with my stomach churning while reading more Foreign Policy news this morning. These issues are old hat for some, but still entirely unexpected by the bulk of our electorate.)
2013 - any attempt by, say, Japan [even India?] to boost it's aggregate demand at the expense of letting it's Fx truly float ... would be met with outrage from the Upper Looting Class of other nations, who would instantly label it as a "currency war";
(what could Japan do if they were really innovative? voluntarily halt exports to any & all offended nations? :) )
Yet if we really had a heart - or brains - is that what we'd do, let Fx float & auto-balance labor/merchant tax ratios? "Damn the Fx, Full aggregate demand ahead!" Abandon uselessly punitive FICA/Medicare taxes as well?
*(Had to do with my stomach churning while reading more Foreign Policy news this morning. These issues are old hat for some, but still entirely unexpected by the bulk of our electorate.)
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