July 18, 2012

Saviors or Arrogance

By Don Kirk in Free Markets Myth, Keynesian Myth-Math, Politics

In a little more than 100 days the American people will vote for who will be their President during the next four years. If the last three elections are any guide, the American voters will pick a man who believes in the myth-math of Keynesian economics and who sees himself personally as a savior.

Both Republican George Bush and Democrat Barack Obama are Keynesians, believing that the sharp increase in government spending ‘stimulates’ aggregate demand, causing a ‘multiplier’ in employment. But if one actually reads Keynes and uses proven data to measure his theories on how to implement Fabian socialism as the counter-cyclical to capitalism’s business cycle, the ‘multiplier’ is a fraction, the increase in employment is only for government workers, and the stimulus merely increases the costs to the economy both faster and greater than the increase in benefits.

Both men have something of a Savior Complex. There is no such thing in the psychiatric profession, but there is a ‘savior complex’ or ‘god complex’ in pop psychology. To the professionals, there is megalomania, not a savior complex.

George Bush, in his own words to explain his imperial use of taxpayers’ money in the TARP bailout, “abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” More than a little absurd, since there is no such thing as a ‘free market,’ and just how does one rationally save something by abandoning the principles which build it? Only if one is a god can such an enormous thing be accomplished.

In his words, Barack Obama “saved the American auto industry.” No, not even close to the truth. There are sixteen auto companies with factories in the United States, and Mr. Obama bailed out only two. Those two are unionized (13 of the other 14 are not unionized), and since labor unions form the backbone of Mr. Obama’s re-election efforts, he actually only bailed out his personal constituency using taxpayers’ money while claiming credit for bailing out the entire national industry. Only a god could accomplish such a monumental deception.

No one knows yet whether Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, is Keynesian and has a savior complex. He is notably inept at explaining how his leadership at Bain Capital saved several troubled companies and he is reticent about his Mormon faith, so perhaps he lacks the god complex. If so, then he likely will lose in November, because we Americans like politicians who crush the economy and are self-delusional about their role in the crushing.