Abstract
An aging workforce and population decline give opportunity to increase the share of employee-owner managed firms in the U.S., such as employee stock ownership plans. This demographic shift is multifactor, with falling family sizes compounding retirement of Baby Boomers. In generations past, significantly larger family sizes would yield credible heirs. Just as a farmer or craftsman taught their trade to progeny and passed them their farm or tools upon death, prior generations of entrepreneurs frequently had successive heirs to inherit the going concern. But significant societal shifts in education, types of work, and gender roles have contributed to reduced family sizes. As women gain education, they increase their workplace participation, delay marriage, gain access to birth control, delay starting families. Together, these societal developments manifest a decline in population growth. And of concern for the first essay, lack of apparent heir, risks acquisition or outright closure of firms, potentially disrupting continuity of production, supply, and local community employment.
As the Covid-19 pandemic, Russian invasion of Ukraine, and resultant supply chain challenges continue to disrupt public healthcare, societal interaction, and the economy, whether they know it or not, some are calling for increased application of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). In several ways, MMT seeks to address such challenges. This second essay examines several key criticisms of MMT, with a common theme of US economic exceptionalism. After briefly considering the challenge of defining MMT, this essay transitions to limited contemporary literature review and analysis that MMT will not work in developing countries due first, to unemployment frequently being structural and not cyclical and due second, to developing countries lacking sufficiently strong monetary sovereignty. The second essay then assesses criticisms that the US is unique in ability to service debt through deficits, ending with discussion of policy implications for deficit spending and inflation through a primarily US lens.
It is by no means exaggeration to suggest that society finds itself increasingly ill equipped in the art of civil discourse. The realm of political debate has polarized at partisan extremes, fueled by gross economic inequality. But before we can broker peace, it is crucial we mend the broken lines of communication, starting with the most basic building blocks of language. Of late, our (un)civil discourse has been rife with talking at each other and past each other, without pause to consider the foundational definitions of the words we lob. We have weaponized our very means of intellectual connection, to the point that what remains is a toxic stew of defensive reactions. The third essay contained herein has lofty goals of deconstructing and then intentionally framing a lay person’s lexicon with useful definitions for capitalism, capitalist, and capital.