Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Northernomics vs Southernomics

More from Michael Lind - who wrote the story about the distinctiveness of the South below. This is also a bit harsh on the South, but it fits themes we will discuss soon enough when we talk about the development of political parties and economic policymaking. His principal contribution for us is his description of the difference between northern and southern attitudes about how to develop economies, and the degree to which prosperity ought to be spread evenly throughout the population:
Northernomics is the high-road strategy of building a flourishing national economy by means of government-business cooperation and government investment in R&D, infrastructure and education. Although this program of Hamiltonianism (named after Washington’s first Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton) has been championed by maverick Southerners as prominent as George Washington, Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln (born in Kentucky to a Southern family), the building of a modern, high-tech, high-wage economy has been supported chiefly by political parties based in New England and the Midwest, from the Federalists and the Whigs through the Lincoln Republicans and today’s Northern Democrats.

Southernomics is radically different. The purpose of the age-old economic development strategy of the Southern states has never been to allow them to compete with other states or countries on the basis of superior innovation or living standards. Instead, for generations Southern economic policymakers have sought to secure a lucrative second-tier role for the South in the national and world economies, as a supplier of commodities like cotton and oil and gas and a source of cheap labor for footloose corporations. This strategy of specializing in commodities and cheap labor is intended to enrich the Southern oligarchy. It doesn’t enrich the majority of Southerners, white, black or brown, but it is not intended to.


This also fits the story about political culture told in 2306 about the traditional culture in the South as opposed to the moral culture in the North.