Jude Hammerle
On October 13, 2008, it was announced that Mr. Paul Krugman would receive the Nobel Prize in Economics. Mr. Krugman is the author or editor of 20 books and more than 200 papers in professional journals and edited volumes. His professional reputation rests largely on work in international trade and finance; he is one of the founders of the “new trade theory,” a major rethinking of the theory of international trade. [1]
On November 3, 2008, one day before the most anticipated presidential election of my lifetime, the same Paul Krugman authored an op-ed article for the New York Times, in which he speculated that the representatives of the Republican party likely to remain in both Houses of Congress–the “Republican Rump”–would be even more conservative than the current composition of the party, and as a result “the G.O.P.’s long transformation into the party of the unreasonable right, a haven for racists and reactionaries, seems likely to accelerate as a result of the impending defeat.” [2]
For what it’s worth, I saw Mr. Krugman’s piece as just more partisan gibbering, another wasted page in a tiresome tale called Democrats v. Republicans.
Democrats v. Republicans is the sad melodrama that has been forced on us by our increasing failure to compete effectively on the world stage. We have a natural compulsion to compete, and when no suitable global competitive diversion exists, we compete among ourselves.
While I’m not a Nobel Prize economist, I understand that part of the job of a lawmaker is to protect the rights of his/her State and its residents, and that these rights sometimes do conflict with the rights of other States and their residents. That said, another important part of the legislator’s job is to work with colleagues from other States when the national interest calls for it. Right now, the national interest is calling at the top of its lungs, yet we continue to dwell on the small picture, the partisan picture, because it is easier to understand.
It disturbs me that a Nobel Prize winner, especially one whose specialty is exactly the international marketplace in which the United States must immediately improve its performance, is wasting his time on this glorious day of days prattling on about the comparatively petty nonsense of politics. I think even Paul Krugman would concede that he is a better man than this, and that it will be a shame if his article of today is remembered as nothing more than a first salvo in the tyranny of a new majority.
This is not an excerpt from How Sex Sells: The Persuasive Power of Identity (a work in process), but it covers the same ground: the sweeping implications of the human compulsion to compete.
[1] This brief bio is taken verbatim from the NY Times website: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/index.html?inline=nyt-per
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/opinion/03krugman.html?hp
Posted by Jude 
