I was impressed because this post managed to consolidate various aspects (crusaderism, religion, etc.) into one post. But his description of how modern day leftist youth have an entire industry unto themselves is better than what I've ever written. From non-profits to political movements to "green consultancies" he describes the "Leftist Economy."
What's funny though is not one damn ounce of production comes from this part of the "economy." Yes, people are paid, but it still comes at the cost of leftist family donations, and ultimatley produces nothing of value, just crusaders.
A good article on reaping what we sow: http://m.townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/01/08/20-ways-america-has-begun-to-reap-what-it-has-sown-n1483542?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
ReplyDeleteDefinition of decline?
ReplyDeleteA system that has been broken and the millions complaining and yet, do nothing about it.
If someone with a lot of capital has a cause, they can hire droves of people to work in service of said cause.
ReplyDeleteBy definition, those people would work in the "service" industry since they are in service to a cause. The same way you pay a maid to clean your house, Soros might pay a firm to enact a media campaign. It's a service for money, sometimes from a "skilled" worker.
That said, America has been on a path to increasing the size of its service sector for a long time. The production sector that manufactures tangible goods has long since migrated to other countries.
The only issue is that in a service job, once your services are no longer required, you no longer have a job. Some services will always be required in the modern world (Police, Doctor, Teacher, Utilities, Telecom) but not everyone can fit into these largely essential professions.
Products have their own pitfalls. If a product becomes obsolete or the method of producing a product no longer requires a certain type of production worker (ie: most cars are welded by machine instead of a person now) then that worker is out of a job until they can put their skills to work elsewhere. Again, some products will always be necessary (Food, Medicine, Construction / Shelter) but the majority of products are non-essential.
My point is that there are essential and non-essential sides of both sectors of the economy. The issue is that investors and job creators have seen fit to send production jobs overseas and expand service jobs at home. Seeing as there are a finite amount of essential service jobs, the rest of the opportunities are created in (increasingly) "superfluous" categories.
Even in the modern context, getting a degree in an "essential" service category DOES NOT guarantee an easy time finding work. Just ask anyone with a Teaching Cert or the droves of Doctors fresh out of Med School applying to numerous hospitals and getting rejected (I see them daily).
Ergo, because these jobs are not guaranteed, people go where the money is, and if the money is in crusaderism, then they will be crusaders with a degree in crusading if that's what it takes to get paid.
OMG, I had that exact thought of a "Leftist Economy" just last month when I attended a TED-style speakers series at a local entrepreneurship "incubator" type of thing.
ReplyDeleteSome 40% of the speakers were engaged in non-profits, "green" enterprises. And I had that exact same thought -- that these otherwise intelligent and capable people were blowing their capacity on useless-at-best projects.
Put another way, the "Leftist" economy is crowding out productive enterprise in the available mindspace of the upcoming generation. That's 40% of brainpower that could be bringing us the next great innovation, dissipating its brainpower figuring out how to minimize bribery expenses to build a school in some third world war zone to be blown up three years hence.
Evidently, malinvestment happens to more than just monetary capital.