Thursday, May 8, 2008

The tide is high

From WWW Tide and Current Predictor:

5/8-9:
Alcatraz Island
High Tide
23:16 UTC
09:36 UTC

Low Tide
03:39 UTC
16:44 UTC

Elbow Point, Australia
High Tide
01:25 UTC
13:59 UTC

Low Tide
07:08 UTC
20:36 UTC

In my previous post, I talked about the corrosive effect of absolutism on public discourse and effective action. Here I want to talk about something specific in the comments on my Monday post, namely, the idea that the disparities of wealth in the capitalist system lead inexorably to growth for all: "as the disparity grows, all are all lifted up."

This philosophy is most often expressed in a saying attributed to an Irish Prime Minister: "A rising tide lifts all boats." (See Wikipedia for more on the origin of this adage.)

The saying is generally used to support "growth" policies, in particular tax cuts (where the saying justifies an imbalance as to who receives the cuts) and free trade. The idea is that economies are like harbors, in which the tide elevates everyone.

Maybe it's time to retire this phrase, and the idea behind it. As we see above, San Francisco and Australia can have very different tidal effects, as can any two places sufficiently distant from each other.

That this discussion even needs to be held given the persistence of poverty in the world is remarkable; it is obvious that the tide can go up and up, Fundy-esque, in certain places, and the ocean can remain flat in another, and this can persist for years, decades, centuries.

[This brings us back to the Rubin-Reich discussion as to whether we make the pie bigger first, then divvy up the pieces, or vice versa - I've talked about that before.]

A rising tide does not lift all boats everywhere at the same time, and believing it does is simply a substitute for the hard work of moving the water from place to place. Of course, if you believe that some magical force is putting the water where it "deserves" to be, you can disregard this discussion.

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