How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
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Re: How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
#2The person does not seem to draw to anything actionable, and his conclusion is vague.
I am not sure what he even means by 'optimizing for efficiency'
If your business depends on the happiness of your employees then optimizing for their happiness increases your bottom line.
If your business will be shut down if you commit fraud then optimizing for transparency is in your interest.
Is this person blaming economists for something that they do not have much control over - and that is thinking about individual lives. Its mathematically not possible for economists to worry about each person.
The reason why people are angry is that employment is closely linked to your ability to feed yourself and be a consumer of the global economy.
So when politicians talk about employment - what they mean is a person's ability to survive.
Re: How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
#3I don't think the distinguishing characteristic of bankers is their desire for economic efficiency. It's their desire for self-enrichment.
Maybe the author doesn't mean actual bankers, but is instead referring to central bankers, in which case I'd argue that the meager GDP growth achieved from an unprecedented expansion of central banking assets has been anything but efficient.
Regardless, the fact that the author can look back the past 10 years of economic policy and find among all the mad and destructive monetary actions a "quest for efficiency" just shows that the author is as out of touch as the bankers.
What's happening is that the public at large is figuring this out (and this part the author gets right) using the imperfect vehicles of Trump and Brexit to try and stop it.
Re: How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
#4An interpretation:
- Many people want to be able to have agency in what their future is like.
- A quest for economic and technological growth makes the future unknowable, and makes predictions about what skills (and capital) will provide a livelihood to support your family as tricky as predictions about how much a startups equity will be worth. Many (most?) people can't effectively make these predictions and they suffer pretty badly.
Re: How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
#5Quote from OA
"Voters in large numbers have been rejecting much of the underlying logic behind a dynamic globalized economy that on paper seems to make the world much richer."
In the UK, we don't actually know why 17+ million chose to tick the leave box.
My conversations with a handful of people who did vote leave suggest a range of reasons from immigration, through to 'loss of control'. Macroeconomic policy does not seem to figure prominently.
The government of Mrs May is further to the right of that of Mr Cameron. Her published statement does mention a softer approach to social factors and a desire to spread the rewards around more evenly...
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/statement-from-the-ne...
...we shall see how that actually goes over the next few years in terms of actual law (look out for 'red tape' discussions - your red tape may be my employment rights) and policy (look out for some systematic way to replace the EU grant system that has recycled tax income from London/South to North).
Re: How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
#6I don't think the distinguishing characteristic of bankers is their desire for economic efficiency. It's their desire for self-enrichment. Maybe the author doesn't mean actual bankers , but is instead referring to central bankers, in which case I'd argue that the meager GDP growth achieved from an unprecedented expansion of central banking assets has been anything but efficient. Regardless, the fact that the author c…
I don't think the average banker has a greater desire for self-enrichment than say, the average lawyer or the average sales manager.
And anyway, there's nothing wrong with a certain amount of greediness in a capitalist system, this is what drives innovation and efficiency.
The problem with banking has been that the system is broken. Unlike other companies, mismanaged banks cannot go bankrupt because they drag the entire system with them.
Re: How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
#7The person does not seem to draw to anything actionable, and his conclusion is vague. I am not sure what he even means by 'optimizing for efficiency' If your business depends on the happiness of your employees then optimizing for their happiness increases your bottom line. If your business will be shut down if you commit fraud then optimizing for transparency is in your interest. Is this person blaming economists for…
For economists, efficiency is simply that goods should be created where the surroundings are best suited for it - first described by David Ricardo in the 19th century. E.g. Cotton should be planted where there is the most fertile soil etc. This works best in a globalized economy where production can move around freely and where there are no trade restrictions. As a result, productivity is higher, meaning that goods are cheaper (if there is competition), meaning that - provided the result is used for consumption - that everybody is better off.
This doesn't take into account that a) labor doesn't move freely, meaning the change process creates winners and losers, and uncertainty (locals are in constant danger that their job is reallocated to some other place), b) it gives an incentive to move production to places with lowest priced-in externalities (labor market frictions like unions, environmental damage).
Re: How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
#8I don't think the distinguishing characteristic of bankers is their desire for economic efficiency. It's their desire for self-enrichment. Maybe the author doesn't mean actual bankers , but is instead referring to central bankers, in which case I'd argue that the meager GDP growth achieved from an unprecedented expansion of central banking assets has been anything but efficient. Regardless, the fact that the author c…
I don't think the average banker has a greater desire for self-enrichment than say, the average lawyer or the average sales manager. And anyway, there's nothing wrong with a certain amount of greediness in a capitalist system, this is what drives innovation and efficiency. The problem with banking has been that the system is broken. Unlike other companies, mismanaged banks cannot go bankrupt because they drag the ent…
> And anyway, there's nothing wrong with a certain amount of greediness in a capitalist system, this is what drives innovation and efficiency.
I wonder how many years will pass before people realize this mantra is an article of faith.
Re: How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
#9Quote from OA "Voters in large numbers have been rejecting much of the underlying logic behind a dynamic globalized economy that on paper seems to make the world much richer." In the UK, we don't actually know why 17+ million chose to tick the leave box. My conversations with a handful of people who did vote leave suggest a range of reasons from immigration, through to 'loss of control'. Macroeconomic policy does not…
Do you think millenials being priced out of London as it became a global money laundering hub had anything to do with it? That's what I hear from my friends there.
Re: How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
#10Perhaps the pursuit of ever higher gross domestic product misses a fundamental understanding of what makes most people tick. Against that backdrop, support for Mr. Trump and for the British withdrawal known as Brexit are just imperfect vehicles through which someone can yell, “Stop.”
Did the author communicate at all with Trump supporters and leave voters, or is this just speculation? The support given in the article seems pretty weak: an unrelated abstract experiment about efficiency versus equality and a reference to another newspaper article about a BMW worker.