[MCN] Excerpts: A view of US economics from Jimmy Carter to today

[Lance Olsen]

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"After what happened to Carter, no American 
politician today is brave enough to ask for 
limits   ....  President Carter is remembered as 
a weak man-yet no politician now (outside of 
perhaps Ron Paul) has the guts to make a 
similarly bold speech during our current economic 
crisis."

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Caddell thought Americans would be receptive to a 
speech that, instead of appealing to mom, apple 
pie, and the flag, laid out the nation's problems 
honestly and bluntly.

Many within the administration thought Caddell 
had gone mad and tried to keep his ideas from the 
president. But Carter's thinking paralleled 
Caddell's.

Carter felt the country was on an unsustainable 
course, and only through lower expectations, 
conservation, and sacrifice could the U.S. 
survive as a free nation-or at least "free" as 
Carter defined the term in his speech:

"We are at a turning point of our history. There 
are two paths to choose. One is a path I've 
warned about tonight, the path that leads to 
fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road 
lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to 
grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. Š 
All the traditions of our past, all the lessons 
of our heritage, all the promises of our future 
point to another path, the path of common purpose 
and the restoration of American values. That path 
leads to the true freedom for our nation and 
ourselves."

This was not the speech of some America-hating 
leftist. Carter did not try to tear down the 
country, he simply wanted it to come together and 
direct itself toward a goal other than unlimited 
growth or unending progress.

Mr. Conservative himself, Barry Goldwater, said 
much the same thing when he accepted the 
Republican nomination in 1964: "There is a 
virtual despair among the many that look beyond 
material success for the inner meaning of their 
lives." But just as Goldwater's words were of no 
help in the year of Lyndon Johnson's landslide, 
Carter's words did not prevent his defeat in 1980.

The speech was initially well received, and 
Carter's poll numbers went up. But all that 
goodwill was destroyed a few days later when 
Carter demanded the resignation of his entire 
cabinet.

Reagan never repudiated his four votes for 
Franklin Roosevelt and soon began gathering 
elements of the traditional New Deal coalition 
into his fold-neoconservatives; socially 
conservative Democrats of the Midwest, urban 
Catholic Northeast, and the Protestant South; and 
idealistic Kennedy Democrats who could not 
stomach the notion that a country that put a man 
on the moon should turn down the thermostat.

After what happened to Carter, no American 
politician today is brave enough to ask for 
limits. Bush I said that our way of life is 
non-negotiable. Bush II told Americans to go 
shopping after 9/11. President Obama says 
Americans "will not apologize for our way of 
life." President Carter is remembered as a weak 
man-yet no politician now (outside of perhaps Ron 
Paul) has the guts to make a similarly bold 
speech during our current economic crisis. 

Full text here:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/carter-conservatism/


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"Consumer expectations of ever-higher living 
standards were fuelled by more lenient and 
readily available bank lending, the subsequent 
booms in construction and property market 
sectors, .... Social status and identity became 
closely associated with consumption, in 
particular with the concept of luxury. 
Identifying oneself with the good life meant 
being able to live beyond traditional 
understandings of basic needs. Debt was the price 
one paid for the joys of being part of a 
hedonistic consumer culture."

Kenneth Dyson.The Morality of Debt.
Foreign Affairs. May 3, 2015

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-05-03/morality-debt

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"Š the serious meaning in a concept lies in the
difference it will make to someone if it is true."

William James (1842 -1910)
Pragmatism. Meridian Books, 1955






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