What do you want? What do we want?

I don’t just mean for dessert or whether your considering the unicorn  onesie or the cat in the hat onesie.*

What do you want your county or city or neighborhood to do with it’s resources? This is a question you’re asked a lot but rarely seriously but you and I do not know where we are going or where we might go unless you answer it for yourself.

The purpose of economics is to tell us how resources or goods should be disseminated. Not long ago this was determined by the lord of the manor (who took part of crops) or the chief, perhaps. If you were fortunate enough to be a pirate (yeah, you heard me) then the spoils were handed out equally. Pirates had more democracy than we do, believe it or not.

Do you see your resources going to feed the hungry, putting a space colony on mars or or possible saving your children from having to wear cooling suits for most of their lives? Maybe you have always dreamed of building a monster truck area the size of the Pentagon?**

Okay, now think hard about that. Have we done it?

Are we working towards it?

Is it a glimmer in the eye of anyone capable of doing it?

I think that most  of us would say no, to this question. No single payer healthcare, no infrastructure kept up, no affordable housing, lots of debt, lousy retirement plans***, etc.

The guy who only wanted eggnog Oreos, though, I’m certain his dream will come true soon.

The hard working person who dreams of having the bridge on his commute fixed so that he doesn’t meet up with a watery death on his 43rd birthday will say, “No”.

There are two reasons for this: neoliberalism and our complacency.

Under the not so gentle fist of neoliberalism we are at the mercy of THE MARKET. So, the market and not you, me or the eggnog Oreo guy or even the bunch over there that are holding hands singing Kumbaya determines what we do with our planet and our money.

Yes, you heard me right, our planet. Somewhere the decision was made that most of what is on our planet should go into the hands of people with lots of money. You get to send a penis shaped rocket and a car into orbit while the rest of pay our bills with charity because The Market SEZ: “Those with the most money have the most.”

There are not just many of us that think this is normal but that this is the way it should be but if the planet belongs to all of us and all of us put in a hard day’s work why is this okay?

*Okay, I have an opinion: Choose the cat in the hat and be thing 2. It’s the best choice and you know it

** This may be the only good use for it after global warming kicks in.

*** You may consider yourself lucky if you have any retirement plan at all, however, in the olden days (pre-1990’s roughly) actual pensions were much more common than the 401K’s and other plans that we have now. The current plans are tied to the market and that is not a good thing. Just imagine getting ready to retire at about late 2008. Nope, put those plans for your, “Get Fat On Deck” cruise away for another 40 years ‘cos you are not going any where, the financial sector just took your retirement.