economics

The Alberton Papers Vol III, #XVI

By Dick Darne 2-12-07

Economics

The following morning found the thinkers hard at it.
“Where’s old Dick this morning?” asked Johnny.
“He went to Portland, had to do a bunch of things on his daughter’s house, water heater, furnace, drier, general fixing.” Replied Bill. “Us older guys have figured out that daughters always need their Dads”
“We’ll just have to get along without him” said Todd. “There’s something I noticed on the way here that might warrant some thinking. I passed at least three loads of raw logs heading in opposite directions.”
“Yeah, and I’ve noticed load after load of finished lumber passing each other going in opposite directions too.” Said Bill.
“ Really great sharing the road with those monsters this time of year, too.” added Johnny.
“Ever since the ‘Great-Communicator’ deregulated trucking, there has been no more Sonnys and Wills, they all have to keep on trucking just to make wages.”
“According to the Wall Street Journal, our food travels an average of 1500 miles, from the source to the table” stated Todd.
“I guess this begs even more questions” said a new voice from across the room. “mind if I comment? My name’s Gno Lackowitz, from over across the river.” Without waiting he began. “Don’t we make anything in our great land anymore?” “What happens if we continue to buy like drunken sailors from abroad and sell very little that is made here?” “How in the world can workers making a small fraction of our wages buy anything we made if we did make anything?” “Aren’t we going to eventually ‘square things up’, after all, if things can’t go on forever, then they won’t.”
“Here in the USA we are less than 5% of the population and we consume close to 50% of the resources.” added Todd.
“Your children and grandchildren will!” exclaimed Padre, in a booming voice. “is that justice?”
“And eventually someone’s going to have to reckon with me!” spoken in an even more authoritative voice. Old Mother Nature didn’t speak often, but when she did, everyone knew she had spoken.
“I hear about a place that specializes in economics over in North Dakota. Called ‘The Nodak Institute of Financial Technology’, Professor Sven Berkowitz, studied with the best.” Said Gno.
“Think Dick’ll mind if we make a long distance call?” someone said.

Stay tuned, same time, next week, when the boys race to make the call before Dick gets back from Portland.
dd