Thought For the Day

From Ancient History, by Charles A. Robinson, Jr.; page six; The MacMillan Co., NY 1966.

The second century AD was one of peace and prosperity BUT few great books, no new ideas in government, no new arts or sciences – collapse ahead.

By the end of the third century AD Rome suffered labor shortages, but economic stimuli produced no innovation. Outside building and engineering, there was stagnation of technique – disastrously so in agriculture.

Trade deficits – Eastern imports of luxury items were not paid for with exports but with coin – gold drained from Rome.

Budget deficits – Army and bureaucracy (corruption and graft) crushed the Roman World. High on the list of causes of economic decline – growth of health care, housing, education and financial services provided without payment, i.e., bank accounts. Common features: lack of competition, opaque ricing, heavy subsidies, regulatory constraints on supply. THE SOLUTION: government control of economic activity: regulate for public purpose; limit consumers’ ability to borrow to buy specific goods with rapid price rises, also income policies and wage controls.the army and bureaucracy – expanding expenses could not be met by primitive. atrophied economy, couple with labor shortages. Largest expense was the army.

Depopulation/manpower shortages – onerous rents and taxes – farmers and tradesmen could not produce enough to support large families. In-kind taxes kept farmers from profiting on rising prices.

Income Inequality – only large landowners prospered; were practically kings precursor to feudalism; attached peasnats to land; caste system destroyed initiative and Roman life that had existed for centuries;

Migrations – Italian people lost amid a sea of races. Rome had failed to assimilate Hellenistic ideas or even their own culture. No thought – failure to think on a grand scale. Sound familiar?

Constant wars and invasions.