Good Parenting – Supply and Demand

The question is the response - i.e. good parenting. This is what is missing right now. If one thinks of the economy as an endless balancing act of things we want and others want and things we can produce and others can produce, we have to throw in the degree to which some higher authority (read: both government and, in America, etc. - religion) can shift goods or demand (read: social payments and laws against sin, etc.).

Thus, what we have is disequilibrium. And "capitalism" says we let the individual optimize their own choices (i.e. produce and consume based on production); Socialism (communism) says we don't put too much pressure on the individual to produce and whatever is produced, we spread that around fairly evenly.

So, it's really not a matter of trust. We have countries like China where people were poor and were willing to work hard. Other countries like the US were rich and people (read: UAW and unions) don't want to work hard (read: retire after 30 years - can we say, Age 50). So, here's the disequilibrium.