In the ages of scarcity, a man who could produce more than his family needed was honored. Mercantile capitalism evolved as a way of motivating individuals to produce and distribute surpluses. When the profits from surplus failed to satisfy the merchants they often consumed the seed. Monetary capitalism financed trading ventures and wars. Industrial capitalism replaced human labor with team and water power. Constant economic growth was accepted as the pathway to progress for most citizens of industrialized nations.

When demand for things unavailable during the Depression years and World War II were satisfied for those who could afford them, industries had unused capacity. To keep factories busy, consumer credit was extended to the haves, mortgaging their futures earning power. Personal debts and clever marketing tied workers to the economic system. When these short-term measures had run their course, the Reagan Revolution reduced taxes while increasing spending making debt a permanent driver of the economy instead of a temporary measure for smoothing bumps in the economic cycle. The trouble with Reaganomics is the faster you go, the behinder you get. Frightened by the ballooning national debt, the voters are persuaded to starve the public agencies of resources, and then, when they become dysfunctional, they are replaced by dysfunctional private enterprises.

Many who profit disproportionately from this economic system think that freedom is the unrestricted use of their wealth and power. This conceit is threatened by representative government and by the possibility of revolution. When the GOP refused to consider Obama’s nomination of Garland to an aging Supreme Court, they allowed the Trump administration to resume stacking the court with young radical right justices. Dominating the court and neutralizing the executive agencies marks the death of representative government. Our corporate community has been public enemy No. 1.

As long as voters remain hooked on growth and believe that trickle-down economics will give them a meaningful life, those encouraging people to seek other economic arrangements are stifled.

John Gibson

Owatonna