Marginal Reason….
Sully had this bit posted on his blog today, a quote from Tyler Cowen (who?) explaining why liberals should favor supply-side economics:
“The other major issue regarding the how-the-poor-would-invest-if-they-had-money question is, a substantial minority of the poor are that way BECAUSE they aren’t good at money management.”
Uhm, isn’t the major issue regarding the how-the-poor-would-invest-if-they-had-money question, is that, unlike the theoretical construct we are playing with, in the real world the poor HAVE NO MONEY to invest? But some probably would be bad investors, if for no other reason than they didn’t have the benefit of growing up in an environment where having disposable income was a part of the daily fabric of life. We learn so much by the example set by our family environment as we grow into adulthood. Children who grow up in a cash starved construct will know how to survive, a skill in itself, but may not know much about, or be distrustful of the basic concepts of growth economics. Example: I’m a guy raised in the A/C cooled, shop-for-food lifestyle of the typical American middle class. Throw me into the heart of Australia, a barren desert, and my chances of survival would be thin. Yet there are populations of aborigines who have lived their for thousands of years and survived because they were taught how from birth.
Hope this makes sense. I just woke up and haven’t had my coffee yet.
Politics / Law Stuff | Sonicfrog April 4, 2007
By Citizen Deux, April 10, 2007 @ 6:11 pm
Given the success of micro-loans in small economies, the “poor” prove to be adept business folks in most cases. Now, would they know how to invest money in securities (pretty removed even for sophisticated investors), probably not. But would they support their cousins budding delivery business? You betcha!
Book for library – Hernando DeSoto’s Mystery of Capital
By tausapsunlons, December 17, 2007 @ 9:43 am
The truth is that they are not and there is a growing industry to prove it.