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Comment by scotch_drinker | Hacker News Reader

Maybe this is true, maybe not but sometimes, it's ok for things to be bad for the economy. The economy isn't supposed to always go up and when we meddle in an attempt to iron out the bumps, we only serve to make the future bumps much worse. I wish our leaders and economists would both believe this and succinctly explain it to the public.

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Leaders who try to explain this to the public inevitably get voted out of office, because the opposition will explain the exact opposite and the public can't tell the difference.

Do we know that for sure? Has anyone tried it lately? I'd like to find out but the cynic in me says it's pretty unlikely.

I agree that we should tamper with natural economic forces as little as possible, we should remember that even economic nature can be a cruel, cruel bitch. Read the following for why we should sometimes risk economic meddling, despite the costs and risks.

https://morecrows.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/unnecessariat/

TL;DR: Being on the bottom of the economic ladder is terrible and near impossible to escape.

Totally agree. I would have far preferred the bailout in 2008 to be put into an infrastructure program that put those classes of people to work instead of enriching the Wall Street crowd. But, no one asked me. Government should protect the unprotected and let everyone else fend for themselves. Instead it does the opposite these days, at least in America.

It's always done that, except for the few glory decades after the great depression (and the needed a world war to jumpstart)

> natural economic forces

There is nothing natural about the economy except in the unhelpful sense that everything is natural. All economies are regulated to a greater or lesser extent for the benefit of someone. The question is always: who is that someone.

> The economy isn't supposed to always go up

That's not true. If managed correctly, it would always go up at least in line with population increases.

My contention (and history supports me since no economy has always gone up) is that there is no way to manage an economy correctly. It is too complex of a system and therefore cannot be directed without alternate, often unpleasant side effects.

Well I think it's hypothetically possible for an economy to always improve, but nobody understands what policies to enforce to allow that. Even if you have good policies, nobody knows how to completely mitigate stock bubbles, housing bubbles, bond market bubbles, etc. So I mostly agree with you.

Depends on the time scale.

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