Let's put this "Invisible Hand" to rest once and for all.
What some call the Invisible Hand is the creative imagination of the human being that invents ... everything from the spear, fire, the wheel, stories, medicine, math ... a narrative of our existence ... to steam engines, electricity, wireless, space stations, the internet, books, plays, movies, heart transplants, ... biology, chemistry, physics ... psychology, sociology ... beyond my ordering of the jumble of "products" pouring forth from the minds of humans.
The "spirit" of America -- the collective energy of individual motivation -- is providing each and every individual human being the opportunity to get a fair share of his or her inventiveness in applying his or her effort -- their being able to direct their own effort, mental and physical -- to "earning" a living, providing the needs of living. Unleashing this spirit produced the greatest country for the common man AND the greatest country itself, that the world has ever known.
The radical change of moving away from slavery and indentured servitude -- where the benefits of individual effort accrue to someone else -- to individual autonomy in our economic lives -- and to all areas of our lives (did it start with the Protestant belief of the individual's direct connection with God?) -- has transformed the nature of government and all other forms of human endeavor.
In one sense, the human narrative of existence can be described as an expanding balloon. The interior is our history, the exterior is our future, and our experience of now is the skin ... it's elasticity, our inventiveness.
I would suggest that a primary role of government is to foster the creative imagination of the individual human being, thereby blowing into and expanding the balloon of human experience.
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My world was rocked today with news that a co-worker was laid off from the job. Losing just one person in our company is a very big deal as we are only six people, two of which are the owners. In my mind the layoff could easily have been me! I feel vulnerable today, though it seems my job is safe. I ponder why it wasn't me put out in the cold. I do have the most seniority in the company but I doubt that was the deciding factor. I can tell myself I have job security because I'm very good at what I do. Or was it that I'm a man and they laid off a woman? Part of me is hurting for the laid off employee and then there is the part of me that is thankful it wasn't me. What a day.
I would encourage the government to start a *Green Industry Initiative*. America needs jobs!
We're in a mess, aren't we? ... on different levels ... macro and micro ... because of the economy.
The pain of personal financial uncertainty is real, and we feel it when those we know suffer. I am afraid the pain is going to spread until we start working our way out of the mess we are in by creating jobs that produce goods and services with value in the world's market economy, with the workers in those jobs earning a fair share of the wealth produced in those goods and services.
Read Bob Herbert in today's NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/opinion/07herbert.html
An excellent place to begin would be with a "Green Industry Initiative" ... expanding the balloon ... and if a private consortium cannot be found to lead in funding "Columbus's voyage to the new world" then the federal government should play the role of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
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