Mom Always Liked You Best

Strictly speaking, UMass/Amherst isn't my alma mater, since that term is generally applied to one's undergraduate college.  But it was almost my undergraduate school, and it was where I did my graduate work.  In fact, at that time, it was the only University of Massachusetts, before "they" decided to re-brand the state teachers' colleges. 

As regular readers know, the theme of this endeavor is to drive home the point that only with widely distributed income can there be sustained social and economic stability.  Growth, too, since the population, best efforts notwithstanding, grows apace.  Today's news brings this piece, co-authored out of Amherst.  Neither the reporter nor the paper come out and say it, but get closer than most to the nub:  the whole mess comes apart when only the 1%-ers get the gravy. 

One can argue, and I certainly do, that nail pounders in FL and swamp people in LA, shouldn't be taking in more than a teacher in some urban school.  But neither should basketball players, either.  Priorities matter, and if we continue to reward 19th century skills (I'm talking to you in MT and WY) through the Tea Bagger reactionary zealotry, we'll end up on the wrong end of mercantilism (look it up).

This isn't the first paper to point out the undue influence of FIRE, especially Finance, on the input-output matrix (the paper doesn't use that term, but it's what matters) of the economy since WWII.  The policy pundits need to stop listening to the garbage coming out the mouth of Orangeman.  People buy Things, not the Services that continue to suck up national income.  We make nothing that sustains family values, take that Newt.