Good Life for All = Private Sector + Public Sector

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A Good Life for All

http://politisite.com/2011/10/23/a-good-life-for-all/

Good Life for All = Private Sector + Public Sector

There is a great debate in the United States today about the role of government and about wealth distribution. These debates are about the larger scheme of the economic model to which we subscribe.

Capitalism as it is known is about an individual working to earn and accumulate wealth with minimal impediment. Throughout American history, there have been times when capitalists (business owners) have run amuck with greed and corruption at the expense of workers. At the demand of voters, Government intervened to correct misbehavior.

Some workers lobbied government and organized into unions. Others used their votes to get representatives to enact laws to protect workers and to ensure fairness and benefits.

Government serves business owners, management, and labor as a mediator at times.

Business lobbyists convinced some representatives and eventually convinced the courts that corporations should be treated like people. Corporations created political action committees and various ways to channel money to the campaigns of elected officials to the extent of undermining individual voters. This circumstance has yet to be reconciled and that is one reason why initiatives like Occupy Wall Street have appeared.

Now, wealth in America has skewed into the hands of a privileged few. At a time when the needs of the people are deficiently met by the American economic system, people want the wealthy to share more of the burden. Therein lays conflict.

Here is a story that provides more grist for thought about our economic system.

There has been discussion and debate about basing the cost of government as a function of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the goods and services produced by the private sector.

Public Sector Employment = f (GDP) = % of GDP

Public Sector Employment is a function of GDP that can be expressed as a percent of GDP.

Public Sector Employment = f (GDP) = % of Private Sector Employment

Public Sector Employment may also be expressed as a % of Private Sector Employment.

Therefore, if Private Sector Employment is down, then Public Sector Employment must go down.

President Obama, following the types of actions taken by FDR to stem the Great Depression, wants to increase Public Sector Employment to pump more dollars into the economy with the notion of jump starting the private sector.

The trouble is that Government has already squandered its borrowing power on wars and foreign policy as well as tax reduction polices that it could not afford. Therefore, Republicans argue that this option is not available.

Is GDP a f (Private Sector Employment)?

Is GDP a function of private sector employment? There may be a positive influence of private sector employment on GDP in good times, but in bad times like these, the cost simply exacerbates the debt problem.

Therefore, other solutions are needed. This is why I argue that a new economic model is needed, beyond capitalism because capitalism is not addressing the need of providing a good life for all.