My defining moment in economics came early; at about age ten. It happened on a playground at a country school in North Carolina. I had been rummaging around my father's farm shop and had discovered some ball bearings. To me, a precocious fourth grader, they weren't just ball bearings. They were steel marbles; heavy case hardened steel shooters. Over the course of the next several days I proceeded to clean up on the playground. In the marble wars, I simply couldn't lose.
At the end of my winning streak I experienced an awful revelation. I had lots of marbles and no one to play with. The game had stopped. Here I stood, pockets bulging with marbles, surrounded by some thirty sullen boys who had no marbles. It was a most uncomfortable moment.
It only lasted a few minutes. I was precocious. I figured it out. If I had all the marbles there could be no game, and the fun was in the game. Not only that, I had some doubts about getting off the playground with all those marbles. Some of those boys were big, they could run faster with empty pockets than I could with full pockets, and there were lots of them. I "redistributed" some marbles. The game resumed.
My high tech advantage in the marble wars was very short lived. Some of the other boys also lived on farms, and their fathers had shops and ball bearings. Within a few weeks steel shooters were the "standard of the playground." I continued to do well on a "level playing field", however I was never again able to overwhelmingly dominate the game.
The accelerating pace of our information age technology is a cause for concern. Too many people are ending up with too few marbles. Unlike my childhood experience, this high tech revolution is serious. It is causing real and permanent damage to a lot of people who are little able to do anything about it.
I shall explain with a an example.
Irene and I own a small sheep ranch and are involved in a number of sheep related activities. In that regard, we have a pick up truck with high side boards that we use for hauling sheep. I was recently asked by a friend to pick up some sheep in a nearby town. I didn't think much of it until we arrived at the pick up site and I discovered the details.
The owners were a family of four; a mother, a father and two lovely, well mannered young girls. The sheep were five beautiful prize winning registered animals - and family pets. They should have been worth $1,500 to $2,000. They were being donated to my friend - "just give them a good home". The father was being laid off from a local factory job and the family could not afford to feed their sheep over the winter.
While my friend was taking care of sheep related details with the mother I discussed economics with the father. His prospects are grim - very grim.
Along a more sinister line, the publications I read contain what seem like endless statistics that tell me we are rapidly heading for a technologically exacerbated disaster. Those of us who are "technologically literate" are doing very well. Those who aren't - aren't, and some are not taking it well. It is very probable that our fastest growing non high tech occupations are in "criminal justice."
We have got to find a better way
to
distribute the marbles, if not for reasons of fairness and humanity,
then
for reasons of our own survival. A sack of money is not an asset if it
get's you mugged on the way to the bank.