Rare Healthy Old Growth Western Red Cedar, Mt. Pilchuck, WA

It is not too difficult to improve the economy from a purely economic perspective if you are a benevolent dictator. However, when we include politics everything becomes much more complex. Certainly some people will behave in a healthy and rational manner, which makes politics healthy rational. Some others will behave in what I call an unhealthy rational way, which makes the economy less fair and less predictable. Still others will act in an unhealthy and irrational way, which makes the economy unfair and unpredictable to all but those with undue influence.

Do we live in a perfect democracy? I suppose some unhealthy participants in our system will say we do. Our system has been responding to the unhealthy influential members for a long period of time. Healthy rational voters or non-voter participants have been a minority overall during this time. It is no wonder we have an economy that has been functioning poorly. Our unhealthy and irrational participants that include many wealthy individuals and large corporate and other special interest groups have been creating and advertising too much misinformation for the many to maintain a healthy and rational outlook.

Perfect information is a critical factor in making healthy rational choices in any political economy, but especially in one like ours that depends on a large number of individuals to contribute by making choices in voting and consumerism. We have been played over and over again by misleading, mean-spirited strategies of the unhealthy. I challenge our economists and political scientists to conduct studies that demonstrate how unhealthy short-term irrational thought is destroying our system.

And, I challenge these same economists and political scientists to conduct studies that demonstrate how healthy rational participants having majority power in the system will get better short-term and long-term outcomes for our nation and/or the world economy. It will help us all to publish your findings and have them translated for mass publication in addition to academic publication. Our era can be one that is kinder and gentler if kinder and gentler people have the most influence.

Daniel A. Jones, September 18, 2011
arthbuus@gmail.com