Sunday Musings - August 16, 2020
As is always the case, this past week was a fascinating mixture of events, both personal---those events which directly and immediately touched my life---and public---those which rippled through the air touching all of us in a way which will effect profound changes.
On a personal level, my brother suddenly got a call at 2:30 [a.m] Tuesday morning instructing him to get to the hospital in Dallas for a new matching kidney. By Thursday he was heading home. As his wife is limited physically, our sister and his stepdaughter-in-law quickly made plans to help with his recovery. So far the kidney seems quite happy in its new home.
Also on the person level some individuals I know made great progress in their journey of recovery/healing. One person from whom I had a very positive note on Wednesday lost what seemed like a lot of progress in his recovery journey. By Thursday he was dead of an overdose, joining an ever-increasing number.
Everyone I know who teaches, has school-aged children, or works with the school system has continued to struggle to make decisions about the new school year in the United States while considering the emotional, financial, and intellectual health of their children
Nationally in the United States, Covid-19, related and non-related economic decisions, fierce storms in some states, and political decisions continue to provide an opportunity for the United States citizens to rethink some base questions. What is the purpose or job of the economy? What decisions or policies will most likely help to make that [the] purpose manifest reality? Fortunately, individuals such as Ezra Klein on the Ezra Kline Show (podcast) are committed to exploring these and related question. Mr. Kline’s guest this week was Zach Carter who is a senior reporter at HuffPost and author of a new book, The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes. Mr. Carter reminds the reader that first and foremost John Maynard Keynes was a moral philosopher. Mr. Keynes asked such questions as: “What values should guide an economy? What are the higher purposes economic policy should serve?”
Mr. Carter reminds us of the fact that Mr. Keynes is the perfect person for all of us to reread. Not only did he seriously consider these essential questions, he did so from the perspective of a very human, often self-contradictory man; a man who was a pacifist; who had a key role in the British war machine during World War II; who was one of the chief architects of British socialized medicine; who recognized some of the dangers of socialism and many of the limitations of other approaches.
Mr. Klein raises questions about deficit spending, the role of advertising in economic preferences, the limits of democracy, and modern monetary theory. I urge the reader of this blog to listen to his blog and to consider reading some of the books he recommends.
I was and am excited about the fact that Mr. Klein, Mr. Carter, and others are publicly asking the questions I believe not only necessary as we approach rebuilding the economy but morally imperative. I have often suggested that we need to teach young school children to begin to identify important questions such as: What sort of world do we want to build with the tools we are learning in school? What does it mean to build a just and moral world? Are all people equally deserving of food, shelter, health care, and education?
As a philosophy major who began as an engineering major, I am interested in the core moral questions which will guide the design of an economic system. A combination of factors including a failed health care system; a failed and expensive judicial system which is based on the false assumptions that we can label mentally ill and other people as criminals, treat them badly, and not suffer dire consequences ourselves; the fact that 1% have a majority of wealth; an economy based on time-limited disposal products which overwhelm landfills and destroys marine life; COVID-19; racism; sexism; a significant percentage of young people who feel left out and have becomes addicted; and a host of other factors contribute to the circumstances in which we now find ourselves.
We can either see our present situation as an overwhelming disaster which is doomed to destroy this nation and the planet or we can see it as an opportunity to rebuild from a base of the tough moral questions which Keynes and others have explored.
Written August 16, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett, LPC, AADC
coachpickett.org
As is always the case, this past week was a fascinating mixture of events, both personal---those events which directly and immediately touched my life---and public---those which rippled through the air touching all of us in a way which will effect profound changes.
On a personal level, my brother suddenly got a call at 2:30 [a.m] Tuesday morning instructing him to get to the hospital in Dallas for a new matching kidney. By Thursday he was heading home. As his wife is limited physically, our sister and his stepdaughter-in-law quickly made plans to help with his recovery. So far the kidney seems quite happy in its new home.
Also on the person level some individuals I know made great progress in their journey of recovery/healing. One person from whom I had a very positive note on Wednesday lost what seemed like a lot of progress in his recovery journey. By Thursday he was dead of an overdose, joining an ever-increasing number.
Everyone I know who teaches, has school-aged children, or works with the school system has continued to struggle to make decisions about the new school year in the United States while considering the emotional, financial, and intellectual health of their children
Nationally in the United States, Covid-19, related and non-related economic decisions, fierce storms in some states, and political decisions continue to provide an opportunity for the United States citizens to rethink some base questions. What is the purpose or job of the economy? What decisions or policies will most likely help to make that [the] purpose manifest reality? Fortunately, individuals such as Ezra Klein on the Ezra Kline Show (podcast) are committed to exploring these and related question. Mr. Kline’s guest this week was Zach Carter who is a senior reporter at HuffPost and author of a new book, The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes. Mr. Carter reminds the reader that first and foremost John Maynard Keynes was a moral philosopher. Mr. Keynes asked such questions as: “What values should guide an economy? What are the higher purposes economic policy should serve?”
Mr. Carter reminds us of the fact that Mr. Keynes is the perfect person for all of us to reread. Not only did he seriously consider these essential questions, he did so from the perspective of a very human, often self-contradictory man; a man who was a pacifist; who had a key role in the British war machine during World War II; who was one of the chief architects of British socialized medicine; who recognized some of the dangers of socialism and many of the limitations of other approaches.
Mr. Klein raises questions about deficit spending, the role of advertising in economic preferences, the limits of democracy, and modern monetary theory. I urge the reader of this blog to listen to his blog and to consider reading some of the books he recommends.
I was and am excited about the fact that Mr. Klein, Mr. Carter, and others are publicly asking the questions I believe not only necessary as we approach rebuilding the economy but morally imperative. I have often suggested that we need to teach young school children to begin to identify important questions such as: What sort of world do we want to build with the tools we are learning in school? What does it mean to build a just and moral world? Are all people equally deserving of food, shelter, health care, and education?
As a philosophy major who began as an engineering major, I am interested in the core moral questions which will guide the design of an economic system. A combination of factors including a failed health care system; a failed and expensive judicial system which is based on the false assumptions that we can label mentally ill and other people as criminals, treat them badly, and not suffer dire consequences ourselves; the fact that 1% have a majority of wealth; an economy based on time-limited disposal products which overwhelm landfills and destroys marine life; COVID-19; racism; sexism; a significant percentage of young people who feel left out and have becomes addicted; and a host of other factors contribute to the circumstances in which we now find ourselves.
We can either see our present situation as an overwhelming disaster which is doomed to destroy this nation and the planet or we can see it as an opportunity to rebuild from a base of the tough moral questions which Keynes and others have explored.
Written August 16, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett, LPC, AADC
coachpickett.org
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