Doers and speculators

There are probably other ways to partition this thing, however we'll start with what the title says, as promised. You see, we're looking at what has gone down the past few decades such that we see larger accumulations of wealth in the hand of a smaller set than before. At the same time, the set of those without has grown substantially. So, we may start with one partition and move around to others as needed for the discussion.

What is a doer? Well, there was an earlier example of grain futures. The 'doer' class would cover a spectrum, from those providing seed, to the grower, to those who make use of the grain; even those who eat the grain would be in the class. Now, within the class there may be a way to measure the extent of membership (this extent may have some intrinsic value - that we will consider - yes, even in this day and age). The doer is trying to make his daily bread.

The speculator deals only with abstractions and the monetary associations thereof. We have to be careful here, as the doers will have their set of abstractions too. For instance, a grower (even as a doer, using acceptable levels of hedging) would deal with an abstract model related to decisions when trying to discern some choice in a 'futures' situation. Perhaps, there ought to be a different term used here; we'll consider that a research topic. But, the speculator has his daily bread; he's after the whole pie.

In the meantime, the use of 'abstraction' (probably in the extreme sense of 'abstract' nonsense - apologies to the category theorists) is apropos. The speculator has no intrinsic interest in the grain against which he or she may be gaming; this applies across the board as grain is only being used for example here; any other commodity would come into play.

And, the speculator would not have to be easily characterized by some prototypical notions, such as we see with the day trader. In general, it would be some 'big pocket' position; yet, what we have seen is that the 'gaming' allows privileges to the speculator that prevent in-the-large maximization across the whole. Oh, what the hell does that mean?

We'll look at that further next time; but, for now, let's just consider that the doers work with things that improve our lives through direct effort or through their efforts with others. What do the speculators bring except grief?

Remarks:

03/25/2013 -- The Atlantic had an article about King Abdullah II. Now, he is an example of a doer, from several angles. What I liked when I read it was that while being educated in Massachusetts, he bussed tables. What that means for those who don't know is clean up dirty dishes and such. When I, as a young man, was in the US Army, we had still had KP duty which included such types of things. Another task that ought to be tried once by everyone: cleaning the grease pit.

05/05/2011 -- Another round.

11/04/2010 -- Big Ben is still putting us at risk and trashing the savers.

01/22/2009 -- This topic is related to people matters which can get more attention now.

10/04/2008 -- One differentiating feature might be that speculators get bailed out. The doers get trampled.

Modified: 03/25/2013