"Herded by fear and greed" by Jessica Irvine, July 25, 2009
The Sydney Morning Herald, Business Day.
Concerning the global meltdown, she notes : The premise of mainstream economics --that we're rational beings making informed calculations about how to increase our utility - has fallen spectacularly short.
She quotes J. M. Keynes who was the first to document the animal spirits and herd instincts that drive human behavior, - "which turns out to be rather messy". During the great depression,
in 1936, he wrote that people make their decisions "not as the outcome of weighted average of
quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities, but on ANIMAL SPIRITS -
a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction.
Were ANIMAL SPIRITS the guidelines for our economists and budget directors when we threw away our wooden guns, and entered World War II with its staggering costs? But is it fair to compare a wartime threat with present-day threats to our society?
Yes, if the threat is of the same magnitude when measured in "body counts". As David A. Kessler, MD, author of "The End of Overeating. Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" has pointed out, "Two out of three American adults are now either overweight or obese. Excess weight increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer (of the breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, and uterus), stroke, gallbladder disease, arthritis, and more," and then he explains how the food industry leads us to overeat.
We could say more, about how greed and self-interest is causing neglect of millions of needy persons, but space is limited.
WILDEGEEST FOUNDATION - www.WildegeestFoundation.org
The Sydney Morning Herald, Business Day.
Concerning the global meltdown, she notes : The premise of mainstream economics --that we're rational beings making informed calculations about how to increase our utility - has fallen spectacularly short.
She quotes J. M. Keynes who was the first to document the animal spirits and herd instincts that drive human behavior, - "which turns out to be rather messy". During the great depression,
in 1936, he wrote that people make their decisions "not as the outcome of weighted average of
quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities, but on ANIMAL SPIRITS -
a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction.
Were ANIMAL SPIRITS the guidelines for our economists and budget directors when we threw away our wooden guns, and entered World War II with its staggering costs? But is it fair to compare a wartime threat with present-day threats to our society?
Yes, if the threat is of the same magnitude when measured in "body counts". As David A. Kessler, MD, author of "The End of Overeating. Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" has pointed out, "Two out of three American adults are now either overweight or obese. Excess weight increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer (of the breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, and uterus), stroke, gallbladder disease, arthritis, and more," and then he explains how the food industry leads us to overeat.
We could say more, about how greed and self-interest is causing neglect of millions of needy persons, but space is limited.
WILDEGEEST FOUNDATION - www.WildegeestFoundation.org
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