Roosevelt's Razor
This widely reported study is highly unusual by psych and econ standards. It uses a REAL experiment and REAL people to distinguish two conditions. (Nearly all other "studies" use psych undergrads playing absurd computer games, thus deleting all possible connections with real humans.) The subjects were REAL sugarcane farmers in India, who were tested just after harvest and six months later, to create a REAL difference between monetary security and monetary worry. The result was unsurprising but nicely verified: People think more clearly when they feel secure, and have trouble solving problems when they feel insecure.

Polistra wants to expand this into a broad-ranging principle. We all know that bad employers deliberately keep poor people in debt to keep them desperate. Sixteen Tons and all that. Bad employers don't want clear-thinking workers, they want desperate and stupid workers. Bad governments and bad religions have the same preference, which might not be quite so obvious.

In short, this is a useful cutting tool to separate bad and good organizations. If they encourage and reward debt among their members, they are Satanic blackmailers and extortionists. If they encourage and reward frugality, they are doing God's work.

In employment, we could call the separator the Ford Sword. The bad side is too numerous to bother with examples. The good side was exemplified by the 'Social Economics' movement around 1901. (eg Henry Ford, E.W. Marland.) The method typically had three parts: (1) pay the workers enough that they don't need to borrow for subsistence; (2) train their wives to manage households well; (3) provide in-house recreation and clubs for cheap amusement and positive loyalty.

At the level of government, we might call the separator Roosevelt's Razor, because FDR eliminated predatory bankers and speculators, helped to get farmers and workers out of debt, and TRAINED THEM in better money management. Western governments since 1975 have zoomed back to the pre-FDR universe; since 1990 they have rocketed out of orbit, far beyond all previous bad governments, taking every possible step to force borrowing and punish saving. Cypruscation is the latest outrage, but it's going to get worse. Count on it.

In religious terms, call it Mohammed's Machete. Old Mo got serious and specific about hacking off the shackles of debt and interest. He offered timeless guidance for honest and charitable business behavior. Christ wasn't nearly as specific. Instead, he encouraged followers to get rid of all material possessions and depend on the church. Bad advice, which has led repeatedly to pre-Christian behavior by Christian denominations. Give up your possessions, go into debt, pour money into the preacher's solid-gold Cadillac, and you will be rewarded in heaven.

Education reflects and reinforces the same distinction. Until 1980, most schools had strong Home Ec and Manual Training courses, including household budgeting.


In the New Fried[m]anite America, students are not "restricted" by direct sensory and muscular connection to the real world. They are not "restricted" by job skills or domestic skills or budgeting skills. They are Free At Last, Free At Last, Mammon Almighty Free At Last, to be ignorant stupefied debt slaves, passively absorbing TV propaganda for Fried[m]anism, buying Chinese-made crap with borrowed money, creating infinite riches for the Fried[m]ans.

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Semi-relevant sidenote: While checking the death date of Home Ec, I bumped into this remarkable account of a Home Ec course that provided complete apprenticeship. From 1928 to 1954, Iowa State used 'Home Management Houses' as full-time laboratories for all the skills of running a home.... including taking care of babies. They contracted with orphanages and juvenile courts to keep and raise real children for a year at a time!

Labels: skill-estate

  ¶ 6:10 PM