It is good to occasionally read books that do not fit your way of thinking about the world. One such book is called The Myth of the Market – Promises and Illusions by Jeremy Seabrook published by Black Rose Books, Montreal. 1991. Mr. Seabrook believes the root problem of our society is that it is consumer based and somehow we need to changed it. In a consumer society there is need for growth – the need for a vast expenditure of human energy in the effort to sell more and more than things to people, the need for which had not previously occurred to them? Mr. Seabrook goes on to describe all the ways the market does not work for people and there are lots of examples.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if the company has a reasonable monopoly then it does not have to matter about how the economy is set up or whether the market works or does not. Although for the for see able future, the market is going to be the system of the economy. In reality, one of the few methods to get the economy moving again is to encourage individual spending on goods and services. From a macro point of view it is great policy, on an individual basis – it may or not be – it depends on debt payments.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.