A farmer who owns his land will practice crop rotation,
leave one field fallow every year, or graze livestock on it to build up nitrates, minimize the use of chemicals and heavy equipment, and employ techniques like contour plowing and windbreaks. Farmers who plan to pass their land on to their kids have always done this, or welcomed instruction in how to do it from the local Farm Agent.

OTOH, if you are an absentee landowner, you want to maximize yields in the short term and are ready to sell the land as soon as productivity begins to decline. You will employ any means available to do so and hire and reward managers who know how to do that. When the land is exhausted or eroded away, you move on to another farm, or another business altogether.

And it seems to happen every time. After all, it’s the duty of folks to maximize profits. Short-term profits.

The most beautiful of economic ideas will collapse if they do not take into account human nature.

History is the result of forces which are usually beyond human control, even human perception. Occasionally, individuals in key positions, pivot points at cusps in the time-line, are in a position to shove and influence events much larger than themselves. But for the most parts, people just respond to events, or operate in relatively small venues. Big frogs in small ponds.

The free market and enlightened government are the means by which we minimize these events, and mitigate their bad outcomes. But today, enlightened governments are about as scarce as free markets, and when the line between government and market is blurred, these mechanisms no longer operate. Businessmen today (at least, the ones that matter, the big, influential ones) specialize in suborning governments and manipulating markets. We don’t have entrepreneurs and statesmen any more. We only have hustlers and gamers.

There has been a shift in the psychology and culture of business lately. It used to be that people who were good at something went into business so that they could exert full control over their own creative energies. My friend, a talented naval architect, had to start his own boatyard so he could build the kind of yachts he wanted to build. He couldn’t do it working for other people, at least, not his way. That kind of entrepreneur is very easy to admire. That he can make a profit and keep his suppliers, customers and employees happy is evidence of his genius and his social value to the community.

But we’re starting to see individuals now who aren’t good at anything except business. They can run an airline, or a railroad, or a computer company, or a chain of supermarkets, very often at the same time. It doesn’t matter. They are not knowledgeable or talented at a particular business, they are good at business itself. And they tend to gravitate to businesses like finance and banking, insurance and the stock market. They don’t deal in factories and construction, workers and customers, products and services. They deal in abstractions. They don’t control the flow of matter and energy, they manipulate information, and they don’t like competition. And they have nothing but contempt for those they call “brick-and-mortar” types.

Look at it this way. Developers aren’t good at managing big construction projects. They hire architects and engineers to do that. What developers do is make projects happen. They arrange financing, bribe politicians, do public relations and legal maneuvering. Do you really think they care whether that shopping mall or football stadium serves a public need, or will be profitable in the long run? Of course not. By the time we find out they will have long since skimmed their 10% off the top and moved on to something else.

Have you been following what’s been going on in New Jersey lately? Its a circle jerk of lawyers, bureaucrats, politicians, judges, developers, businessmen and gangsters. And its bipartisan! No ideologies to get in the way here! Immense power flows through this network of iniquity, but there is no master plan, no underlying architecture, no purpose to it all. Its just a house of cards based on only one principle, the self-aggrandizement of its participants. There’s no evil conspiracy, in fact, there really isn’t anyone in charge at all. Its a street gang with business suits: white trash with money.

And occasionally they screw up, and we get a depression or a war, or famine or revolution, or worse.

“Fill ‘er up!”, he says.

The poor guy nervously fills the car, 22 gallons, 17 gallons over the legal allotment but not caring.

The fellow puts the gun away, pays the guy, gives him a $5 tip and drives away.

I have two stories about those times. The way I handled it was to borrow two pristine 55 gallon drums and drive my pickup out to a rural area which didn’t have rationing. Too many tractors and other equipment in that area. I filled those, plus the two tanks in my pickup. That was about 150 gallons. Then I scored gas 5 gallons at a time when the lines were short and supplemented it with the stuff in the barrels.

And I had friend with a plumbing supply business. One of his employees was sort of a handy person. Walt just had that person spend all day in gas station lines filling one or another of his cars.

The monopolies which are so dearly loved by certain political types can’t resist that sort of thing. Think of Enron more recently, and artificially closing down production facilities. I can still remember the rationalizations one of those certain political types making excuses for them.

If any of the farm monopolies could do the same with food, they would, but I believe they get so much in the way of federal subsidies and there is competition in the world market they haven’t figured out a way. Yet.