> However, it's a very bad mistake to confuse
> deindustrialization, which is one problem, with smoke,
> mirrors, lies, and fraud, which is another. We may not
> be able to thrive on honest and properly valued
> production of services while offshoring manufacturing
> and farming (though it is an huge exaggeration to say
> we don't do a lot of both or that we won't be doing a
> lot of both for a long time), but if it's honest and
> properly values it's not going to come down like Enron
> -- even though there will be other Enrons that will
> come down. And it's also a mistake to think that
> physical production is the only kind that counts.
I thought Chuck's point wasn't so much about the sacredness of honest toil as much as how much of what gets counted in the economy is money flowing up the wealth scale in return for nothing at all -- no research, no management, no accounting, nothing. Woj seems to have made this point in terms of the cultivation of transaction costs. 401k fees vs. SS, the 30 or so % of health spending that goes to bureaucracy in the US system. It would be interesting to figure out how much of that goes to burning the raw materials that Mr. Heartfield takes as an index of national wellbeing.
(Here's a bonus example: even in areas that provide some degree of services for special needs children, figuring out how to obtain these services can be daunting, requiring knowledge of the system, where to look, what to ask for, how to answer questions, etc. So you can hire an "advocate" to navigate the system for you and get you your gummint services.)
-- Andy