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Thread: weekend commentary - Has the US become an economic 'Cargo Cult' ?

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    Default weekend commentary - Has the US become an economic 'Cargo Cult' ?

    from a professional investors' BBS ...

    (snip)"The "Cargo Cult" economy.

    For those unfamiliar with this intriguing concept, please see the Wikipedia entry on the subject here:



    (snip)"Cargo cult activity in the Pacific region increased significantly during and immediately after World War II, when large amounts of manpower and materials were brought in by the Japanese and American combatants, and this was observed by the residents of these regions. When the war ended, the military bases were closed and the flow of goods and materials ceased. In an attempt to attract further deliveries of goods, followers of the cults engaged in ritualistic practices such as building crude imitation landing strips, aircraft and radio equipment, and mimicking the behaviour that they had observed of the military personnel operating them."(snip)

    (snip)"Manufactured clothing, medicine, canned food, tents, weapons, and other useful goods arrived in vast quantities to equip soldiers. Some of it was shared with the islanders who were their guides and hosts. A small number of primitive peoples were observing, often right in front of their dwellings, the largest war ever fought in history, between the most technologically advanced countries.

    Missionaries and colonial authorities normally present before World War II were evacuated from combat areas, and the local villagers were deprived of any knowledgeable explanations of these widespread and large scale war activities."(snip)

    (snip)Cargo cults typically were created by individual leaders, or strong men in the Melanesian culture, and it is not at all clear if these leaders were genuine, or were simply running scams on gullible populations"
    (snip)


    As you can see, like the islanders who worship outmoded paradigms, so too do our "High Monetary Priests" and hundreds of millions of clueless, brain-dead sheeple cling to failed Keynesian and Miltyian systems of fiat currency, fractional reserve lending, central banking, securitization and derivatives.

    And, similar to the superstitious island heathens, the idiots in charge keep enacting bizarre monetary rituals and constructing new fiat idols in the pathetic hope that, somehow, this activity will attract the "Economic Prosperity Gods" to once again rain down wealth from the heavens.

    However, as with all deluded imbeciles, sooner or later it isn't prosperity that visits upon them for their ignorance, but rather penury.

    And pain.

    And hardship.

    Yet I see NO chance that the morons are in any way dissuaded from their "Cargo Cult" mentality. Therefore they will continue to construct paper-mache edifices and pray that the grinding poverty that continues to chew away at the very fabric society will simply disappear, like an evil apparition. "(snip)


    The fancy definition from Wiki ...

    (snip)"From time to time, the term "cargo cult" is invoked as an English language idiom to mean any group of people who imitate the superficial exterior of a process or system without having any understanding of the underlying substance. The error of logic made by the islanders consisted of mistaking a necessary condition for cargo to come flying in, i.e., building airstrips, control towers, etc., for a sufficient condition for cargo to come flying in, thereby reversing the causation. On a lower level, they repeated the same error by, for example, mistaking a necessary condition for building a control tower, i.e., build something that looks like a control tower, for a sufficient condition for building a control tower.

    The inception of cargo cults often is defined as being based on a flawed model of causation, being the confusion between the logical concepts of necessary condition and sufficient condition when aiming to obtain a certain result. Based on this definition, the term "cargo cult" also is used in business and science to refer to a particular type of fallacy whereby ill-considered effort and ceremony take place but go unrewarded due to flawed models of causation as described above"
    (snip)


    comments ?

    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 07-17-2010 at 09:44 AM.

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    Default Re: weekend commentary - Has the US become an economic 'Cargo Cult' ?

    What would Dr. Feynman himself say?

    The economic cargo cult consists mostly of our financial sector and its belief that value and wealth can be created out of thin air, either by building enough houses or by assigning prices to enough intangibles.

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    Default Re: weekend commentary - Has the US become an economic 'Cargo Cult' ?

    ^^^ its also arguable that the economic cargo cult consists of large numbers of registered voters and politicians who believe that the gov't can create value and wealth out of thin air to fund ongoing 'redistribution' programs from which they personally benefit.

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