A concise//explanation as to why the economy and your body need to be the same

Reading not only helps you think differently, but, on particularly clarifying occasions, it leads you to feel as though conceptual nerve endings have cohered within three pages.

Red doesn't scare me.

Mr. Chang–professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge–wittily organizes his selected arguments about capitalism into 23 "Things." Chapters progress by "Thing #"

Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3...

Each chapter name, or "Thing #," is followed by an argumentative sentence, summing the analyses that subsequently unfold. For instance, Mr. Chang includes the almost curt yet possibly alluring

Most people in rich countries are paid more than they should be (Thing 3)

Assume the worst about people and you get the worst (Thing 5)

Free-market policies rarely make poor countries rich (Thing 7)

More education in itself is not going to make a country richer (Thing 17)

Despite the fall of communism, we are still living in planned economies (Thing 19)

Kirkus Review says 23 Things "Shak[es] Economics 101 assumptions to the core." I feel grateful to have been suggested the book by a professor of Sociology 102.

I'm majoring in psychology, so I think a great deal about people. Naturally, I relate Chang's recurring points to my studies of the mind.

here we go.

Why the economy needs to be exactly like you

Scribbles of a purple sticky note, transposed:

General take-aways

-What is better for the economy regulates productivity for the long term.

-There hasn't been enough investing for the long-term (GM, a good e.g.; 195)

Redirect your attention to the hovering cookie. I did not include the pastry nor the recognizable "KS" of the Starbucks logo for aesthetic effect, but to visualize my point. If regulation benefits the economy, the human body can be used for comparison.

This cookie. This cookie was really good. I think it's a new type of those mass-produced Starbucks goodies, and it's good. (I don't say "mass-produced" with scorn, because how else could we feed all these people if we didn't mechanize some expedited easy-bake oven?!?)

Back to the cookie–"Toffeedoodle," it's called. I highly recommend it–a blend of cinnamon and sugar, using toffee pieces as the chocolate chunks consumers might be hankering after in a cookie. And these toffee pieces–they offer the salt. In concert with market enthusiasm for blends of sweet and salty, such as caramel sea salt and chocolate-covered pretzels, this Toffeedoodle pleases.

While reading the above description, you might feel hungry. After clicking on phrases like caramel sea salt and chocolate-covered pretzels, you might feel like you could eat an entire bag of halloween-sized Take 5 bars. But that wouldn't be good for you in the morning.

OF COURSE I wanted to eat all of it immediately; I watched the barista transfer the Toffeedoodle to her comrade, and listened for her comrade to rustle it into the patented paper bag. I wanted to get that instant gratification. and when I finished it, I wanted more.

But then I waited–sometimes, my body needs to catch up. What did I just do? I ate a cookie. Do I need another one? Could I even take another one? Maybe. 

As it turns out, I neither needed nor could take another one today.

What is regulating my cookie-eating activity here? My mind.

What regulates economy? Regulations.

In the words of Mr. Chang: "Sometimes regulations help business by limiting the ability of firms to engage in activities that bring them greater profits in the short run but ultimately destroy the common resource that all business firms need" (197).

So, in simple terms, if my mind did not regulate my cookie-eating behavior, you, blog-reader, would never have any cookies ever again.

On to Chang's examples. They avoid the mental image of Sarah Simon ransacking your cookie jars:

Fish farming: "regulating the intensity of fish farming may reduce the profits of individual fish farms but help the fish-farming industry as a whole by preserving the quality of water that all fish farms have to use."

Child labor: "it may be of interest of individual firms to employ children and lower their wage bills. However, a widespread use of child labor will lower the quality of the labor force in the longer run by stunting the physical and mental development of children."

THE 2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS: "Individual banks may benefit from lending more aggressively. But when all of them do the same, they may suffer in the end, as such lending behaviors may increase the chance of a systemic collapse."

Restricting banks and businesses may force them to act in the interest of the long-run. What do you to to preserve yourself for tomorrow?

My mama always said: honey, it's balance. And balance is easy to say, easy to recommend, easy to see the benefit of. But it's as if our survival depends on the ability to resist the flight of bodies and minds, and stay grounded. Restriction might bum out the individual, but it's in the collective interest:

So, Marx, why didn't the Soviets succeed? Because PEOPLE NEED TO FEEL LIKE THEY OWN SOMETHING. So let me have this cookie. Just regulate me in the act of eating it.

Communism has failed for the same reasons unregulated capitalism has ruined lives: These systems do not operate in accordance with the body. The former assumes us unselfish; the latter assumes us rational. We are neither one nor the other all the time. So how can an economy, a collective pooling of our interests, constantly be what we are not constantly, and succeed?

The only way humans would thrive in a completely centrally-planned or utterly unregulated economy would be if Dr. Walter Freeman II were resurrected and we all begged him for transorbital lobotomies.

The Dr. does have a sparkle in his eye.

for more information on what a transorbital lobotomy is, follow the embedded link. i recommend paying particular attention the first paragraph as well as the last 4 paragraphs of the page. the descriptions are graphic, though, so don't be eating cold cuts right now.

this is food's share of the blog post. see you soon. i promise there will be more food next time. and a special guest. if things go to plan.