At the moment, I’m in the blogospheric equivalent of The Doldrums. The election is over, the legislation has yet to begin, the holidays are upon us, and, to top it off, the laptop from which I do a good bit of blogging has blown a hard drive.

In other words, feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

Digestion Friday seems like an even slower news day than Thanksgiving Thursday. So I’ll just pepper you with randomness from my randomly firing neurons:

#I wonder if the economic downturn will result in a spike of suicides and, if so, how much. I wonder if this is something hardwired into our DNA so that, in times of scarcity, there are fewer members of the tribe to consume scarce resources.

#I don’t really buy into the “class warfare” arguments that conservatives routinely put forth when the topic turns to raising taxes on the wealthy. However, I wonder if there is a sort of class warfare that is going on when people gripe about union wages on the basis that they are more educated than the union workers but are making less.

#Edna Parker, who was a Hoosier and the oldest woman in the world passed away at the age of 115. Born April 20, 1893, she became a widow in 1939 when she was about 45 years old. She is the 14th longest living human in history — at least in terms of ages that have been validated. By all accounts she was a wonderful woman. Rest in Peace Ms. Parker.

#A significant attack on U.S. military computers came from Russian sources.

#Eight year old boy snaps after 1,000 spankings, murders dad. Family not surprised: “they were too hard on that boy;” “if any eight year old could do it, it was him.”

So, Happy Thanksgiving everybody. To me, this seems like the holiday that has remained “purest” in some ways. Everybody gets the idea of celebrating things they have to be thankful about by stuffing themselves silly. Commercialization hasn’t really taken over – probably because Thanksgiving is in a sort of consumer rain shadow of Christmas. When the nagging details of day-to-day life get to be a hassle, it’s easy to forget how good I really have it. I have a beautiful, smart, loving wife and two healthy kids who, by initial indications, are sharp as a pair of whips and who still seem to think I’m pretty awesome. I have a roof over my head, and plenty to eat every day. It’s easy to forget that health, food, and shelter aren’t something everybody can take for granted.

On the other hand, Thanksgiving isn’t all happy-happy-joy-joy. I’m a history buff and there is always a Clash of Civilization element in my mind when I think about the holiday. From my Thanksgiving entry last year:

In 1620 a band of religious separatists who weren’t happy with their situation in England (Church of England) or Amsterdam or Leiden (cultural influences) departed for the New World. For some reason, they planned their trip such that they arrived in Massachusetts in December. They found land that had been cleared by a prior Indian settlement and subsequently decimated by disease — most likely smallpox — and were able to settle there during the winter.

Fortunately, a native Patuxet named Squanto who had twice been kidnapped and enslaved by Englishmen was able and willing to translate for the Pilgrims and teach them how to raise corn and catch eel. Having survived their first year by the skin of their teeth and brought in their first harvest, the Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving 386 years ago.

Considering the fate of the Patuxet really drives home how much we have to be thankful about given the relative lack of plague, famine, and waves of foreigners from across the sea. Squanto, as it turns out, was to be the last of the Patuxet tribe which died out entirely when Squanto died of smallpox in November 1622, about a year after the first Thanksgiving.

So, if you think you have it bad, it could probably be worse. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

McSweeney’s has a nice parody of Atlas Shrugs for modern times which does a good job of pointing out how silly Ayn Rand seems these days when the financial masters of the universe don’t seem quite so masterful and the idea of government regulation doesn’t seem quite so pernicious compared to the alternative. Also, Rand’s ideas were always tarnished as being part of the age old quest to turn selfishness and greed into virtues. I don’t suppose writers and other thinkers ever went broke telling rich people that their money was a sign of righteousness and that God loved them; all that camel passing through the eye of a needle business notwithstanding.

These anti-sex crusaders confuse me. They target pornography, but you get the idea they think sex is a dirty, nasty awful thing you should do only to the person you love best, and then only to procreate. In this installment, a group calling itself ROCK is targeting a 40 year old business in Clarksville. It has put up a billboard basically encouraging people to call and complain about an adult theater called Theatair-X which has been in business for 40 years with the only complaints against it being those ginned up by ROCK. The billboard calls go to a number which is then transferred to the Clarksville town hall.

These people are a “solution” in search of a problem. I get some of the anti-pornography sentiment. The hypersexualization in our media, particularly advertising, creates some unrealistic perceptions. But, frankly, I’m more irritated by trashy looking Bratz dolls being sold to little girls than I am about porn. And, in any event, the reactionary anti-sex position of zealots like ROCK are more damaging to kids than the porn industry.

Somewhere in between (probably closer to the porn side than the ROCK side), there is a realistic attitude about sexuality that says that it’s something that can add some real joy to our lives without being used to control us or to sell us stuff.

An article by Lesley Stedman Weidenbener in the Louisville Courier Journal reports that the state will be borrowing up to $330 million to pay for unemployment benefits through January. The fund has $21 million in it while the average monthly benefit pay out is $66 million.

“It’s a big problem that has to be dealt with,” said Sen. Dennis Kruse, chairman of the Pensions and Labor Committee, who is part of the group. “It’s one of those harsh realities of our government and business climate today and we’ve got to do something to solve it.”

That could involve changing who’s eligible for unemployment benefits, raising the taxes employers pay into the system or reducing weekly benefits to those who are out of work, said Kruse, R-Auburn. The answer will likely be a combination of the three, he said.
. . .
In 2000, employers paid $277 million in taxes, and interest contributed another $103 million to the fund. The department paid out $259 million in benefits.

But since 2001, the fund has operated at a deficit. Last year, the state paid $172 million more in claims than employers paid in premiums. For the first 10 months of this year, the gap was $242 million.

Not good news.

Back before Amy & I had gotten married, my spending patterns were something of a running joke. I was kind of a tightwad and rarely bought much in the way of stuff, but I blew a lot of money eating out, watching movies, and the like. So, I’d explain that I didn’t mind spending money, “as long as I didn’t have any assets to show for it.” It was a little like Brewsters Millions. While it worked well enough for me, it is no way to run a national economy.

But, it seems like the U.S. is going down that path with Citigroup being the latest business to successfully petition the U.S. government for financial assistance.

The complex plan calls for the government to back about $306 billion in loans and securities and directly invest about $20 billion in the company. The plan, emerging after a harrowing week in the financial markets, is the government’s third effort in three months to contain the deepening economic crisis and may set the precedent for other multibillion-dollar financial rescues.

So, if I have this straight, GM is not worthy of a bailout because they actually make stuff, pay average people about $28 per hour, and their executives arrived in Washington on corporate jets. I have not seen information on the Citigroup contingent’s itinerary or information on how they are compensated.

I don’t pretend to know how to get out of this financial thicket; but pouring money down the rat hole of the financial services industry while withholding money from manufacturers with infrastructure in the U.S. that actually makes stuff seems a little skewed.

Update Former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, has a column on the theme of Why Citigroup and not General Motors.

Nonetheless, Citi is about to be bailed out while GM is allowed to languish. That’s because Wall Street’s self-serving view of the unique role of financial institutions is mirrored in the two agencies that run the American economy — the Treasury and the Fed. Their job, as they see it, is to keep the financial economy “sound,” by which they mean keeping Wall Street’s own investors and creditors reasonably happy.

Rick Callahan, writing for the Associated Press, has an article entitled “State Jobless Rate 6.4%.” Indiana’s jobless rate is up from 6.2% to 6.4%. It’s even tougher in some neighboring states, with Michigan up to 9.3%. These numbers don’t reflect people whose unemployment benefits have run out or who have otherwise stopped looking for work.

Among the Hoosiers feeling the pinch is 60-year-old Skip Surguine, who lost his job as a telemarketer about a year ago and now survives on disability checks for his diabetes-related complications.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a variation of that type of story running my collection circuits. Until this past week, I had thought that the economic downturn was more or less “baked in” already for the lower end of the financial spectrum that I typically run across in these cases. They have been having a roug time of it for several years. But, this week’s cases gave me the sense that things are getting more desperate out there — my sample size is about 100 cases for the week, not necessarily representative of anything.

But, as everyone knows, it’s not just the poor feeling the pinch. The stock market, as everyone knows is having a rough time of it. The Dow has lost about 10 years worth of gains. The major indexes are down 30-40% for the year. I’m probably not the only one who feels like a bit of a chump for putting money into my 401(k) all these years. Maybe my money would have been better spent on world travel or something that once seemed much more frivolous than saving.

But, I suppose past is past. I’ll probably keep grinding away as long as I’m fortunate enough to have a job; keep saving in the hopes that it won’t take 20 years to regain this year’s losses; and hope that the carnage in the economy leads to that “creative destruction” the economists like to talk about and, sooner rather than later, creates a stronger economy that leaves our communities better off in the long run. But not too far in the long run, because, as John Meynard Keynes said, “In the long run, we’re all dead. With that cheery thought, I hope everyone is having a good weekend.

I pick on libertarianism because I once considered it my political philosophy. I still think it has plenty to offer, but no longer think it is the end of the discussion. It’s also of interest to me because it’s so important to American political thought; even if the Libertarian Party has not been wildly successful and even if inclinations toward libertarianism are horribly diluted in practice by our politicians. So, last night, I found myself dreaming about having an argument with a friend about libertarianism and epidemiology. Yes, in fact, I do have the lamest dreams ever.

Washington’s visage fades away. Lisa talks in her sleep, “I want to help you, George Washington…”

Bart to Lisa: “I want to help you, George Washington”? Pfft, even your dreams are
square.”

In any case, I have previously indicate my belief that libertarianism is generally inadequate for addressing pollution where the harm is often subtle, indirect, and hard to deal with using the court system. (The second main one often on my mind is to question whether use of the corporate form is permissible to libertarians given that its primary purpose is to insulate individuals from liability.)

Now, I find myself wondering what the libertarian approach to epidemiology might be. Would, for example, eradication of small pox be possible in a libertarian society. What about compulsory innoculation or strong incentives for innoculation? I’ve never heard this addressed, and, frankly, never given it much thought before. But, I suspect the libertarian position would be that government can’t force or coerce an individual into getting an innoculation. The body, of all things, belongs to the individual.

O.k., but then what? The individuals who refuse innoculation have increased the risk of infectious disease for the entire population. What do the individuals owe the rest of the population for increasing their risk in this fashion?

We are a society of individuals; which is why libertarianism is valuable. But, by the same token, we are a society of individuals; which is why it is not the whole answer.

Conservatives hated Roosevelt and the New Deal. Watch out for revisionist myths as we enter an era that seems to rhyme with, if not repeat, some of the Depression-era conditions.

I don’t pretend to have any great knowledge of the Depression, Roosevelt, or the New Deal. But, at least, I’d be very skeptical of historical analyses of Roosevelt’s policies coming from folks who are philosophically inclined toward maintaining the status quo that suggest that the rich should not have been relieved of some of their money and power. That’s not to say such analyses are necessarily wrong; only that the potential for bias to skew the analysis is very strong.