By Bill Falzett on 6/22/2007 11:00 AM

John, you got it wrong again (Bill Gates Needs an Econ Course, June 21, 2007). The prosperity problem is not about government or free market; it’s about people and the Village. What makes a Village prosperous and people-friendly is openness, consequences for breaking the rules, and justice.

 

Whenever people do not feel answerable to anyone, their behaviors deviate from the norm to the extent of psychopathic behaviors. The effects of that imagined invulnerability are the real issues – lawbreaking becomes the norm until it is confronted. I cite as an example the Nixon administration that started operating on the princi ... Read More »

By Bill Falzett on 6/9/2007 1:12 PM

Most people don’t discriminate between grief, depression, and despair. When troubled by these emotions, you’re not likely to be all that sharp about sorting them out. I’ve been a psychologist for almost 40 years and a political activist for only three. I can tell you unequivocally that as far as psychotherapy goes, that sorting is essential. I suspect that sorting is important for the political process as well.

 

Grief is an emotion that you experience when you lose something. A loved one dies, a friend moves to another state, a spouse leaves, or you lose your favorite toy. Grie ... Read More »

By Bill Falzett on 6/2/2007 2:11 PM

A professor of business ethics wrote in a recent editorial opinion in our local paper that the “immorality” in our governmental system is “in the welfare state itself, in the government’s policy of coercive wealth redistribution.” He went on to point out that there is no moral justification to such coercive wealth redistribution. He focused on welfare to the less fortunate. The writer ignored the welfare that costs much more – corporate welfare. The mythology of trickle-down economics and "free" markets are the underpinnings for his argument.

 

Such thinkers are generally in favor o ... Read More »