REFER TO GREY: Contemplations by Robert Greigos © 2007-2024

Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously yesterday opposing the Obama sponsored economic stimulus packaged. GOP Senator Grassley of Iowa explained in an interview on NPR that "Most of the wealth in this nation is created by small businesses who create jobs for people. We should be doing more to help small businesses than what this package offers."

Grassley's assertion is probably correct if "wealth" is understood to mean liquid capital and capital is understood to mean leverage or influence over behavior. But that isn't actually what businesses do. What businesses actually do is exploit. They exploit both labor's willingness to work and consumer's desire for change. Create interest or demand for something and you've created a market, a group of consumers for your product. But in order to satisfy that market you need to motivate labor to manufacture your product or provide your service. Capital is what can motivate labor to perform as needed. Capital buys raw materials, tools, and pays wages. Wages then become capital in the hands of consumers, leverage to buy products and implement change in lives.

But capital is useless if there is not interest or demand for things, things that promise material improvement in the quality of life for consumers. In other words, to assert as Senator Grassley does that the creation of wealth should be the principle objective of the proposed economic stimulus package seems substantially wrong headed. So, how do we create interest or demand for something that is healthy for our economy and our world? Innovative vision and an inspiring story.

Obama can listen all he wants to pleas and arguments as to why things need to stay the same or why the myth of fear needs to continue, but no healthy sustaining worldwide economic activity will result without investment in those among us who dare to dream and labor to create an inspiring change in all our lives. Hopefully the humble words of some of those folk will be heard from amongst all the respectful listening that will be done in coming days.