There\u2019s a common theme in philosophical circles that draws analogies between society at large and the human organism.\u00a0 The body politic is likened to the human body with concepts of specialization, interdependency, and cooperation in the organic being reflected in the societal.\u00a0 Western writers such as Plato and St. Paul use these themes extensively in some of their most notable works.\u00a0 So, taking it as given that one can use terms associated with a human being when speaking about society, what can one say about the health of the American body politic?\u00a0 In short, the country is having a nervous breakdown \u2013 the head is positively suffering from a psychosis over capital and the heart seems to vacillate between euphoria and resentment over those that hold it.<\/p>\n
At the center of this mental and emotional anguish is the notion of the concentration of capital into the hands of the relative few.<\/p>\n
General unease about the wealth held by others has always been something that the American mind has worried about.\u00a0 In healthy times, this feeling is normally repressed as most people simply get on with the business of living their lives and building their own wealth.\u00a0 However, in times of stress and economic dowturn, these feelings creep from the dark corners of the mind and become a paranoia that drowns out rational thought.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0We are currently experiencing just such a flare-up with a severity not seen since the late-60s to the late-70s when the US last lost its collective mind.\u00a0 Not convinced? Just take a cold-eyed assessment of the aimless discontent and rampant suspicion expressed by the Occupy movement against the one-percenters.<\/p>\n
If obsessive paranoia of the rich marks one component of our collective malady, illogical expectations about wealth and how much of it we deserve marks the other.\u00a0 Bordering on schizophrenia, our sense of entitlement blinds us to the practical aspects of living in the real world.\u00a0 We have a bizarre love-hate relationship with business \u2013 swinging back and forth between irrational exuberance and petulant condemnation. \u00a0One moment we become weak at the knees and positively gush at the announcement of some new gadget or product line.\u00a0 The next we turn around and launch blistering social media campaign calling for a boycott against the same business for the smallest of slights.\u00a0 Most of us no longer understand how hard it is to achieve success in any venture of merit.\u00a0 We don\u2019t grow our own food, produce our own energy, build our own houses, and so on.\u00a0 We\u2019ve become conditioned, by the slickest devices of advertising, to expect our every need and whim will be addressed by the undefined machine around us.\u00a0 Most of us never bother to look deeper into how the machine works and so we end up with unfounded notions about business, unreasonable assumptions about hard work, and unsustainable expectations of our own comfort.\u00a0 How else to explain the rise in the popularity of socialism in the face of all empirical evidence?<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that the country would be well served by some quiet time in an asylum.<\/p>\n
If general dysphoria is the prognosis, what is the cure?\u00a0 By and large, the remedy consists of one part critical thinking and one part economic literacy, applied broadly to the population before the onset of any pathological conditions.\u00a0 And so, as a public service to our ailing society, I offer the following case studies about our collective feelings toward the rich and towards wealth.\u00a0 Look for the tell-tale signs of their symptoms in those around you and help those unlucky ones get the treatment they need. (Note:\u00a0 all the names have been changed to protect the economy.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Edith suffered from the common delusion that the rich hoard their wealth.\u00a0 Just how much money does one person really need?\u00a0 Fortunately, Dr. Milton Friedman had just the medicine.\u00a0 He points out that concentrations of capital result in jobs for those not rich via the vehicles of investment and capital development.<\/p>\nCase 1:\u00a0 Patient Name: Edith; \u00a0\u00a0Diagnosis:\u00a0 Hordus Maximus Jealousy<\/h2>\n