Here's a test anyone from presidents to patients, from celebrities to crackheads, should take. Ask yourself what's gotten you further in life -- what you heard from your family or learned from your books? A really terrific little question, because the answer has traditionally confirmed that, right or wrong, our personal perceptions usually become our public realities. However recently, fellow recession-ers, tradition has changed.
Consider...
Mom used to say, "Always keep your day job." In recent years, Wall Street said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." Dad used to say, "Save for a rainy day." The stock market said, "Saving is wasting." In looking back over these last 30 years -- Reagan to Obama -- a lot of us are discovering that some of our best-selling books may have talked us out of some of our best-learned advice. Now with our latest bubble busted, we're left to wonder who we should believe in more: "the folks" or "the experts?"
The question is an ancient one: How best do you mix your paints to achieve your best economic picture? Perhaps dabs of optimistic yellows and spendthrift greens subtly worked into cautious blacks and thrifty blues? Well, yes, but the real master painters always know the exact degrees and blends needed for a true masterpiece. Who are the masters today? Those old-time pictures from home face all sorts of new-time experts confidently hoisting their brushes and holding up their canvasses. These painters come from the White House, the Congressional Budget Bureaus, the International Monetary Fund, the G-20, even a few that survived their own rubbled bubble to paint again. And yet, not a one of us knows for sure which of their paintings to bid on.
This could be one of the biggest bids in our lifetime, so how to choose?
Darned if this doesn't sound like the classic battle between old cliches and new statistics, around-the-kitchen- table wisdoms vs new global-economy charts. While they're still unframed, everyone's painting looks spectacular. Until, that is, the next one is held up. And so once more, we have this gluttony of choices, this plethora of solutions. The old tug from what we learned in Mom's kitchen and Dad's workshop still has the feel of time-tested folk wisdom. After all, they didn't do so bad!
Still, this is a far more educated and sophisticated time. Can old Uncle Harry's home-spun intuitions about making-an-honest-buck stand up to Ben Bernacke's and Tim Geithner's computer-spun projections about the GNP, COLA and CPI? Darned if I know! Or they know!
So we're left to ponder. Has our world become too complicated and sophisticated for the little guy to understand it...? Or is our world just another emperor whose clothing is an illusion that takes a little guy to see through...? Like you, I'm just in the crowd standing on my toes to see if I can tell the difference.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think there is a fine line between the so called "experts" and the "folks". I guess the educated answer is to have an even balance of both to guide you along this crazy ride called life....but I must admit my personal preference is to usually follow the "folks". I sure as hell trust them more than the so called experts...especially these days!
ReplyDeleteI agree..."the experts" have been around a lot less time than "the folks"....gee, they even had folks before they became experts!
ReplyDelete