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Resiliency of Society
Yes, we need more resiliency. As a biologist I know that diversity enhances the resiliency of an ecosystem, and the same applies to economies. Fewer exports and fewer imports saves transportation costs and the carbon emissions they produce. And it generates capacity to change course and produce needed goods in a crisis. Executive compensation is based largely on stock price so there is enormous incentive to maximize short term profitability; we should change the incentives to long term. We need to change our entire economic paradigm from growth to sustainability; there are no frontiers to expand to. Growth should be geared toward better, not more. We need to focus on value, not just money. You get the society that you pay for. If a very talented person can't afford college and ends up flipping burgers, society has lost enormous value that person could have produced. Tax things more that produce negligible value for society, like profits from stock trades; we need mathematicians creating a smart energy grid, not making algorithms to profit from trading. People who create more value should be paid more, but the wealth inequality is far too high. It's crazy for some to be making over $10 million per year while others who work full time at a useful job can't make ends meet. Remember that laying off workers also lays off customers, and payment to workers comes back in sales.
Comment in NY Times 21 April, 2020 in response to op ed by Sen. Marco Rubio on needing more resilience in the U.S. economy.