I often play around with a thought experiment in which I imagine a big box store such as a Meijer store, but with the merchandise rearranged according to an attraction/repulsion schema in which complementary goods mutually attract and competing goods mutually repel (mathematically a very difficult problem, hence a thought experiment, rather than something more ambitious like a simulation). The Meijer store contains books, which includes cookbooks. So I imagine a cookbook sold by Meijer as having x and y (and z) coordinates within the store. The cookbook contains some number of recipes. I think of each of these recipes as having x,y,z coordinates, even though the recipes are virtual rather than physical objects. The recipes are “attracted” to the cookbook in which they reside, but they are also “attracted” to the ingredients they call for (in grocery) and the kitchen equipment they call for (in cookware, appliances, etc.). The prepared recipes (in the initial state anyway) are, like the written recipes, virtual objects which nevertheless can be assigned locations for the purposes of modeling. These objects in turn would attract to tableware, which would in turn attract to tables (but also to cupboards…and dishwashers…each object has a life cycle!) So dishwashers “attract” dishes and “repel” other dishwashers. Plates attract spoons but repel other plates. Repulsion between like objects serves to distribute them more evenly. The TV sitcom Last Man on Earth explored the idea of someone living a seemingly comfortable lifestyle for some period of time on the merchandise in an abandoned big box store, in a post-apocalyptic setting. In a non-post-apocalyptic setting (hopefully with reasonably functional supply chains) an “efficient” arrangement of things and virtual things, and ultimately people, in the interior space of a big box store (or perhaps even better, a mall) could I imagine house (and support much of the economic activity of) a few hundred people, in some comfort.

Originally appeared as a comment on Reddit.

Another organization name seemingly pulled out of a hat. Web search found nothing about “Blue Collar Dollar Institute” that’s not by “Blue Collar Dollar Institute,” so probably a recently-created astroturf. Tenuous link, but one of their contributing authors is Michael Berghaus, who is or was Director of Economic Researcher & Strategy for Charles L. Shor Foundation For Epilepsy Research Inc., which in turn is a donor to the Conservative Partnership Institute. Certainly BCDI’s published articles have a definitively nationalist tone. My best guess is that this astroturf supports the Trump faction of the American right wing.

From WZZM TV:

West Michigan in a ‘shallow recession,’ GVSU economist says

How shallow it might be is of course wild guesswork, but such is the tightrope walked by financial journalism given the realities of mass psychology. I for one accept that it is in the nature of economies (capitalist and otherwise) to behave cyclically, and that there will never be a last recession. What I can’t forgive is an economic policy framework that insists on reacting to economic conditions instead of planning for them, for example, with countercyclical policies. We allow ourselves a few (but too few) countercyclical tools for financial markets, such as floater bonds, but what we really need badly is some countercyclical tools for labor markets. I would suggest a “floater pool” of civil service employees. Maybe these would be assigned to make-work tasks, and I really don’t care, but dog knows there’s plenty work actually needed by society, that is destined to be undersupplied by the market b/c merit goods or what have you. The floater pool would hire massively during recessions, and (frankly) do mass layoffs during rare times of “labor shortage” such as the (present?/recent past?).

Whether late stage capitalism is something one could wish for is a good question, since there seems to be no non-traumatic way out of it. In my young adult years (let’s say late 1980s, early 1990s), I was a little (but only a little) inclined toward what would today be called “accelerationism.” I hadn’t yet heard the gospel of MMT, so I believed that some generation, sooner or later, would suffer the consequences of profligate state spending and public debt. In spite of my ignorance of MMT, I somehow sensed that an aggressive campaign to shrink public spending would almost certainly trigger a recession, but that not addressing the “problem” would somehow be worse. My thinking was, I’m young, at least somewhat “strong,” why not rip the bandage off all at once, get it over with, and if we’re exceptionally lucky, maybe come out of it with the political left not totally obliterated.

I take a decidedly dim view of cyclical models of history. My thinking on that is somewhat informed by David Brin’s excellent blog. David is fiercely critical of the Strauss and Howe “Fourth Turning” worldview, for example. The “soft men make for hard times” etc. meme that get flung around so much by the reactionary elements of the larger public, has what to me look like deeply fascist implications.

Granted, the “cycles” mentioned by The Arthurian concern a much longer arc of history, perhaps a whole millennium if he’s saying (as seems the case) that the end of capitalism will be the beginning of another Dark Ages. My sense of historical ebb and flow is admittedly more on the scale of one (or maybe two) human lifetimes, so the so-called post-war era (except of course for the extreme racism and sexism of that time) was sort of a golden age, and 1980-present (the post-Reagan era, as I call it) has been sort of a dark age, one that I may have referred to in jest a few times as late capitalism, but I’m not entirely convinced that late stage capitalism is something that will happen or maybe even can happen. As indicated, I believe (sincerely believe) that capitalism is a hardy weed, although unlike most people who proclaim that, I don’t see that as a good thing. As I see it, the post-Reagan era has been an era characterized by aggressive restructuring of the labor market (at least in the so-called first world) to replace gainful employment with contingent employment. When my age cohort (the largely invisible “generation X”) reached working age, Management’s agenda was drawing The Firm’s labor inputs as much as possible from either temp agency workers or part-time employees. By now, social expectations have eroded all the way to piecework pay scams (gig “economy”, “sharing” “economy,” whatever one would wish to call it.)

Since I believe capitalism to be a hardy weed, I’m not really a socialist in the strictest sense (well, my heart is, but my head isn’t, but that’s too long a discussion for here). I approve of social democracy, as I see it as a mirror image of Gorbachevism. If it can be achieved, it would be a sort of “capitalism with a friendly face,” and if nothing else a shred of dignity that the American public is so hungry for.

The cyclical history buffs referred to in the article see the upward arc of capitalism as an earlier, competitive form, followed by a decadent, monopolistic form. Is there a possibility of forestalling late capitalism and the subsequent Dark Age by getting aggressive on antitrust legislation or adjudication? As we speak, Kroger’s is going to acquire Albertson’s. In theory, it isn’t a done deal, but just as when it was T-Mobile and Sprint, we all know mergers are only ever a question not of if, but of when. Should we believe that if, by some miracle, the American System rediscovered antitrust, that capitalism could have a new lease on life? Or is late capitalism, the end of capitalism, and the start of the next Dark Age, like all proposed mergers under late capitalism, a matter of not if, but when?

While I’m opposed in principle to grand cycle narratives of history, I’m tempted to believe at least in a sort of “pendulum swing” model. 1932 to 1980 was 48 years. I want to believe that by 2028, perhaps Red America will get bitch slapped hard by majority public opinion, and America Herself will proceed to dismantle the House That Reagan Built, the deregulation, the union busting, the regressive taxation, the whole stinking mess, and rebuild the New Deal, hopefully minus the redlining and other compromises that had to be made with fundamentally evil people in the name of political feasibility.

I’m never quite sure who to believe when it comes to international matters, as that’s where the disinformation runs thickest, but I am sensing a pattern. The American right has been trending isolationist (NOT the same as dovish) in a way somewhat reminiscent of pre-WWII era. Both 🇷🇺 and 🇺🇦 seem to me to be socially conservative cultures and nationalistic countries, and I imagine someone like me would be unlikely to survive to adulthood in either, so I have a somewhat “a pox on both their houses” attitude, and it also seems hypocritical for a foreign policy critic of my vehemence to go hawkish now that I’m well past enlistment eligible age, but the spectre of history repeating itself is haunting.

Had you asked me 20 years ago I’d have said that economic power is a lesser evil than political power, and that bottom unity is a more appropriate strategy than left unity. America’s irrational and irresponsible reaction to “9/11” (Patriot Act, unitary executive doctrine, “total information awareness,” etc.) somewhat solidified that position. Since then, the level of concentration of informational power in the Silicon Valley part of the private sector has shocked me and scared me shitless, enough to flip-flop on that issue. I fear business far more than I do government. Not that political compass measures anything meaningful, but left unity all the way!

Mozilla is like the Democratic Party. This is of course a simile, not a speculation about Mozilla’s internal politics. I assume they’re very much a nonpolitical, let alone nonpartisan, organization. Perhaps for the brief period of time when Brendan Eich was their CEO, they were like the Republican Party. But the gist of it is this: Mozilla is for the open web, and for privacy, but it seems like every move they make is the exact opposite of what it would be if they actually believed in those things. So, Mozilla is like the Democratic Party. It’s the alternative you settle for, because the other choice(s?) is distilled ontological evil.

Cory Doctorow:

A country whose residents’ dignified retirement depends on house prices going up is a country whose government is committing to making shelter more expensive.

The Arthurian:

As for myself, I think it is sad that we still have to dwell on the evils of slavery. I think we need to focus today on the evils inherent in the idea that property is sacred. For if we do not cut short the concentration of wealth that arises because we honor the “property is sacred” principle, it will soon be too late to prevent the return of slavery on a massive scale.

Don Gisselbeck:

It will be darkly amusing if we end up with fascism because Americans are to stupid to figure out gas pricing.

Paradoctor:

The Pen is mightier than the Sword only if it is in alliance with the Coin.

Inflation is my least favorite subject mainly because counterinflationary policy is basically severe austerity. To the extent that it’s a tradeoff, I’d much rather live in a high inflation low unemployment economy (apparently the status quo) than the opposite. Obviously the supposedly liberal media want the exact opposite. They’re absolutely salivating at the prospect of an election cycle with inflation as the front burner issue. They report on inflation with relish.

There seems to be an assumption by many that electric vehicles will be subsidized, perhaps down to the upper middle class (in the American sense of that term), or maybe even the middle-middle class. Something tells me the hoopty class will never get a seat at the EV table. Our socio-economic tier is running on fumes as evidenced by the plethora of car-repair-financing scams advertised on over-the-air television. As the shills for that industry delight in pointing out, every car has a four-figure repair bill in its future, and DIY isn’t a thing any more. The repairability and other vendor-lock-in stories I’ve heard about electric vehicles suggest five-figure repair bills may be the new norm (albeit with better statistical reliability until the aggressively proprietary battery dies). My prediction would be that we the people of humble means will get gently ushered out of the larger society (into a largely homebound life), perhaps with a UBI as sort of a pacifier, before American society gets serious about mass transit.