Of course I am talking about Dignity! You know the one "gonnae buy a dhingy gonnane caw her MA BOAT!!!!!" Now it's a very touching song about...I don't really know it think its 80's sappy crap that makes you think slightly but once it's over you want to hear some hot 19 year old American Girl sing about kissing other women again.
I have a live and let live policy with these songs they do me no harm so I let it go. However one line always bugs me...
"And I'm telling this story
In a faraway scene
Sipping down Raki
And reading Maynard Keynes"
What gets me is where this street sweeping pseudo-socialist gets off sitting in a bar reading Maynard Keynes. Who would be the first person to tell him that a council worker saving money for 20 years is the reason we are in a rescission right now. Get yourself an expensive past time, take up smoking or gamble it all away doesn’t matter as long as it’s getting spent (and taxed so stay off those untaxed expensive past times). That would keep at least 50 people in a job for years rather than one Dinghy maker for a week.
Keynes was the first economist to start using monetary policy to improve growth in the economy. He came up with the "Paradox of thrift" stating that money sitting in bank accounts collecting dust does no one any good, saving and not spending means capital is not getting reinvested making large scale growth impossible. It's easier to understand with large companies saving and not reinvesting but it works right down to your street sweeper hoarding away his cash for 2 decades.
If you forget about the many articles that Keynes wrote these are some of the highlights of his books. Which do you think caught our protagonist’s eye?
"Indian Currency and Finance"
"The Economic Consequences of the Peace"
"A Treatise on Probability"
And the excellent sequel “Revision of the Treaty”
"General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money"
"The Means to Prosperity" (Haven’t read it but I doubt chapter one is pick up litter all day)
Also keep in mind that this man’s main past time was humiliating and brow beating people of less intellect than himself...which was everyone really. So Bogie ain’t going to be too happy when he falls off his crappy boat and has to deal with him in the great beyond!
Mr Bison
