Comments on: Ending the Hidden Agenda Behind Tax Cuts http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/2009/02/15/ending-the-hidden-agenda-behind-tax-cuts/ Politics for Real People Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:33:26 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: linkage http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/2009/02/15/ending-the-hidden-agenda-behind-tax-cuts/#comment-148 linkage Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:27:28 +0000 http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/?p=377#comment-148 "Money - As a token for bargaining, money circulates in the opposite direction to goods and services and therefore tends to move away from consumers and accumulate at the producers. But as it must follow a closed path in the social body, it is necessary for an artificial mechanism to carry it in the opposite direction. Such a mechanism can depend only on the structure of society, on authority: in this way money is imbued with the gradient of authority (grad u) by the process of taxes. When it arrives at the summit, it is divided up by the chief, who can in a permanent (or at least annual) catastrophe, share out the portions where necessary: in fact, this power is one of the essential means of government. Thus, in all societies, the gradient of production and the gradient of authority have a tendency to organize themselves in an antagonistic manner and so bring about a sufficiently stable circulation of money." Rene' Thom - From his Structural Stability and Morphogenesis I find it useful to think of the metaphor for money as "circulation" rather than a "thing." Perhaps in crafting new metaphors about economics one could use the "blood flow in the body" as the "grounding metaphor." Regards, JON “Money – As a token for bargaining, money circulates in the opposite direction to goods and services and therefore tends to move away from consumers and accumulate at the producers. But as it must follow a closed path in the social body, it is necessary for an artificial mechanism to carry it in the opposite direction. Such a mechanism can depend only on the structure of society, on authority: in this way money is imbued with the gradient of authority (grad u) by the process of taxes. When it arrives at the summit, it is divided up by the chief, who can in a permanent (or at least annual) catastrophe, share out the portions where necessary: in fact, this power is one of the essential means of government. Thus, in all societies, the gradient of production and the gradient of authority have a tendency to organize themselves in an antagonistic manner and so bring about a sufficiently stable circulation of money.”

Rene’ Thom – From his Structural Stability and Morphogenesis

I find it useful to think of the metaphor for money as “circulation” rather than a “thing.”

Perhaps in crafting new metaphors about economics one could use the “blood flow in the body” as the “grounding metaphor.”

Regards,

JON

]]> By: Joe Brewer http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/2009/02/15/ending-the-hidden-agenda-behind-tax-cuts/#comment-147 Joe Brewer Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:35:58 +0000 http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/?p=377#comment-147 Hi Robert, That's an interesting question. I'm not sure where you are going with it, but it makes me think about the psychology of concern that shapes many peoples' motivations during a recession. Right now there is a malaise among citizens who feel like they have to squeeze every dollar they earn just to get by - something I'm quite familiar with myself having grown up below the poverty level in rural Missouri. An important shift in the discussion would be to draw attention away from the supposed <em>burden of taxes</em> and toward the <em>gratitude deficit</em> so many workers feel when they spend almost all their time working (sometimes 70 to 80 hours per week) and don't get enough compensation to feel financially secure. Add to this a comment or two about the economic threats in a society with no universal health care and you have the beginnings of a more accurate depiction of why people are so worried about money. I think there is a lot we can do to draw attention to the lack of living wages in our country. Especially since many of the safeguards that would protect low income earners have been shifted to the private sector so that wealthy investors could shift wealth from the productivity of wage earners to their swelling investment portfolios. This is a huge area to develop, and it is much more valid as a cause of insecurity than the misguided claim that the problem is too much taxation. Hi Robert,

That’s an interesting question. I’m not sure where you are going with it, but it makes me think about the psychology of concern that shapes many peoples’ motivations during a recession. Right now there is a malaise among citizens who feel like they have to squeeze every dollar they earn just to get by – something I’m quite familiar with myself having grown up below the poverty level in rural Missouri.

An important shift in the discussion would be to draw attention away from the supposed burden of taxes and toward the gratitude deficit so many workers feel when they spend almost all their time working (sometimes 70 to 80 hours per week) and don’t get enough compensation to feel financially secure.

Add to this a comment or two about the economic threats in a society with no universal health care and you have the beginnings of a more accurate depiction of why people are so worried about money.

I think there is a lot we can do to draw attention to the lack of living wages in our country. Especially since many of the safeguards that would protect low income earners have been shifted to the private sector so that wealthy investors could shift wealth from the productivity of wage earners to their swelling investment portfolios. This is a huge area to develop, and it is much more valid as a cause of insecurity than the misguided claim that the problem is too much taxation.

]]> By: Robert Hahl http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/2009/02/15/ending-the-hidden-agenda-behind-tax-cuts/#comment-146 Robert Hahl Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:38:03 +0000 http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/?p=377#comment-146 Which is the real problem: high taxes, or low wages? Which is the real problem: high taxes, or low wages?

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