No, Mr. Cowen, I will not work harder for crooks :(

 I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors I may have missed.


This is a response for the CNN article “Americans have become lazy, argues economist Tyler Cowen and it’s hurting the economy”.

He writes as if this is the one and only thing that’s hurting the economy.  By this man’s logic if hard work is all it took, The Southeastern United States should be an economic powerhouse today because in the 19th century, a large portion of its population (i.e. African slaves ) gave 100% of their effort for free, often giving up their lives as well. I will not heed the words of an “economist” who makes money just playing with numbers who thinks that cracking a mental whip over the minds of working-class people is somehow going to make us work harder. Nope - that -ish is not going to work any more. I would like to see him write an article on how “Corporate and Government Financial Corruption is hurting the economy “.  I will probably never see him write such an article because of this one simple fact: THE REAL PROBLEM IS most Americans don’t seem to care where the money comes from when they are getting paid. They only seem care when they are getting ripped-off.  A relative once told me that it doesn’t matter if all politicians are crooks, as long as the one you voted for wins and steals for you.  I give you the recent Trump victory as Exhibit A.
 

In a fair, just and balanced economic system, the author may have had a point. The "Occupy Wall Street “ movement started less than a decade ago and somehow 99%ers voted a 1%er into  the office for President of the U.S.  Although this is not the first time this has happened, Americans should wake up to the fact that a crook is a crook whether he or she gets caught or not.  We are sacrificing our liberty for security in the form of a fatter paycheck as opposed to more accountable government / corporate economical practices.  Sure, we have put some people in jail. So what ? in 2008 better than 8 trillion (that 8 million-million, by the way ) evaporated from the hands of working class Americans and then condensed in the hands of the 1%. The graph in article lines up almost perfectly with this fact (note how the number of small business starts plummet around the time of the 2007/2008 crash )  This was not Monopoly money.  That money represented real work, real sweat, and real sacrifice.  What amazes me is that after all these losses (which the big banks actually saw coming because they fixed it that way  ), the American people still had to “bail-out” these “too big to fail” banks to the tune of almost 1 trillion dollars. How much harder do we need to work for crooks before Mr. Cowen is satisfied ?


As for people not starting small businesses, let me play devil’s advocate here.  WHAT SENSE DOES IT MAKE TO START A BUSINESS IN AN ECONOMY WHERE MOST TEND TO FAIL INSIDE OF 5 YEARS, AND BAIL-OUTS ARE NOT OFFERED BECAUSE SMALL BUSINESSES ARE NOT “TOO BIG TO FAIL”? No matter how good change makes you feel, change  and feelings alone does not clear a negative bank balance. Only money does . Mr. Cowen needs to realize that Americans are not lazy, most are just NOT STUPID.  When you have a system that enables dysfunctional behavior, you end up with a dysfunctional economy.  For proof ,  I give you the “American Greed “ TV series available for viewing on Hulu or over the air in certain locales . What Mr. Cowen calls laziness (like the Opioid addiction epidemic)  is a symptom of a much larger problem that takes virtuous, honest, people with very large balls to solve.  How does working harder solve the economy problem when our government dilutes our net worth by printing more money (via quantitative easing), and corporations work hard to keep wages flat regardless of an increase in taxes and inflation ? The only way hard works for you is if you get to keep most (if not not all ) of what you work for, and you truly can get “ an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work”.  If working for crooks is the only choice that  working class Americans have at acquiring any worthwhile standard of living, then most in this country are just as complicit in this criminal enterprise we have come to know as the American Economy.






Mr. Cowen's  article may be found here:

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/12/news/economy/us-economy-big-problem-tyler-cowen/index.html