Monday, February 1, 2010
Locke in the News
The New York Times posted an article entitled $100 Billion Increase in Deficit Is Forecast. This article caught my attention because any increase in the deficit during a recession is a scary but somewhat necessary idea. The article predicts that the current deficit would increase by a $100 billion bringing the total deficit to somewhere in the range of $1.6 trillion. The majority of the $100 billion dollar increase in the deficit would come from President Obama’s proposed stimulus package. President Obama’s goal behind this $100 billion dollar stimulus package is to give tax cuts to business that make new hires and create new jobs and also use some of the money for infrastructure projects. The key to the success of this stimulus package is the hope that it will create more jobs and boost the overall economy.The thing that I found really interesting about this article is the proposed $100 billion stimulus package. I found it interesting because the purpose of the stimulus package is to create jobs. I believe that John Locke would find the idea of using money to create jobs pretty interesting. The reason I say this is because Locke believes that money represents labor. Locke believes that money has stored up labor value imbedded in it. He also thought that money is energy, specifically energy from labor. According to Locke, money only receives its value by contract and agreement between humans. Basically, money is only worth something because everyone agrees that it is worth something. And according to Locke, the value of money lies in labor.
It is interesting that the government is trying to use money to create the thing that gives it value, labor. There are two different ways that Locke could look at this situation. Our government is using the money to try and create jobs. Through Locke’s eyes it might seem that the government has the whole idea backwards. Labor is what gives the money that the government is spending on job creation any value at all. Labor is the primary factor not money.
The other way that Locke might address this idea of money creating jobs is that if money’s value is in labor then the best thing to invest money in would be labor. The government is trying to increase the value of money by creating more labor. If labor gives value to money then by increasing labor the government would also increase the value of money.
The thing that I found really interesting about this article is the proposed $100 billion stimulus package. I found it interesting because the purpose of the stimulus package is to create jobs. I believe that John Locke would find the idea of using money to create jobs pretty interesting. The reason I say this is because Locke believes that money represents labor. Locke believes that money has stored up labor value imbedded in it. He also thought that money is energy, specifically energy from labor. According to Locke, money only receives its value by contract and agreement between humans. Basically, money is only worth something because everyone agrees that it is worth something. And according to Locke, the value of money lies in labor.
It is interesting that the government is trying to use money to create the thing that gives it value, labor. There are two different ways that Locke could look at this situation. Our government is using the money to try and create jobs. Through Locke’s eyes it might seem that the government has the whole idea backwards. Labor is what gives the money that the government is spending on job creation any value at all. Labor is the primary factor not money.
The other way that Locke might address this idea of money creating jobs is that if money’s value is in labor then the best thing to invest money in would be labor. The government is trying to increase the value of money by creating more labor. If labor gives value to money then by increasing labor the government would also increase the value of money.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Josh I found your article interesting and find myself amazed at the debt we are now finding ourselves in. I don't necessarily agree with Locke when he talks about how labor is instilled in money. In most cases yes but in the case of natural resources, say diamonds, the value lies in the diamond and not the labor that went into the diamond. For all we know it could be a blood diamond, where maybe somebody died for the sake of the diamond. Then what would the price be? On the other hand, if nobody wanted diamonds, then there would be no value to it. There is particular type of rock only native to Minnesota but it has no value because nobody wants it. I think it is a good idea to invest money into labor because it gives more people incentive to labor and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
ReplyDeleteYour argument in your post sounds very logical. My first reaction to this blog post was that I cannot believe our country is in the state that it is in that we are proposing another stimulus package. Although it is not ideal for our country to be in this position, the idea of this plan creating more jobs is intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Locke would most likely find the idea of using money to create more jobs very interesting. If our society was this advanced when he first wrote what we read in class, he would probably have included something about how using money to create more labor would do wonders for the cycle of our economy.
Your blog post is very interesting. Reading the article, I don't I would have thought the connections, but you make a valid point. It is sad that our country has to depend on a stimulus package to recover out economy's deficit, but I think it is the right thing to do: by spending money to create jobs where people can work. I don't know how Locke would view this decision. If I had to guess though, I don't think he would believe people need money to create jobs in the first place. Very interesting!
ReplyDelete