"LAGOM": A New Life Style for Post Recession Americans

This recession hasn't finished teaching us that American idol of Darwinian-capitalist pursuit of riches, where a neighbor in difficulty automatically becomes a "loser" to be put out of mind and forgotten, just doesn't cut it when "we" are coming close to becoming one of "them".

This recession is marked by a frightening prospect overnight conversion from plush to bust that can reach all levels, just ask Bernie Madoff's "clients". We all feel the anxiety of material failure, of being second, being the loser when we are nicely comfortable. It all doesnt make sense, we intuit, but who has the time to contemplate when we are so driven to materially excel and garner more than our neighbor in the race to see who next will be the winner, or loser.

The essence of this recession is the repeated lesson that wild frontier, laissez faire (self-regulated, NOT!) capitalism ala Ayn Rand is just a dream, actually a dangerous nightmare because it creates a false theater of false fronts, and actors in false face, where "dollars are the ultimate". And time after time all of these falsities come tumbling down killing the fortunes and hopes of many many people, families, countries. However, America is not down and out for good. We can move on to a higher level of maturity by adopting a life style of moderation, suitability (LAGOM) from one of the most advanced cultures on the planet, and perhaps the culture with the highest standard of living and certainly the first or second highest in cultural well being, Sweden.

The cultural happiness can be summarized in the following observation about purely economic success (which seems to be the current way America values itself):

For all its prominence, GDP is only one yardstick of economic performance and it is no guide to social progress. It simply indicates the market value of all goods and services produced in an economy. It takes no account of how income is shared out, or of how it is generated. Few would celebrate a boom in costly divorce cases – but it would be great for GDP.

America is ready for a new way of living life. It is in our best interest to try a new way of valuing life than material accumulations. That is to say, let's try on "Lagom".

"LAGOM" has no exact translation in English. But good translations of lagom are: "enough, sufficient, adequate, just right". Lagom is also widely translated as "in moderation", "in balance", "optimal", and "suitable", also "sustainable" as a way of life.

Lagom also carries the connotation of perfection through appropriateness.

The value of "just enough" can be contrasted to the value of "more is better". It is viewed favorably as a sustainable alternative to the hoarding extremes of consumerism

"Lagom" is said to describe the basis of the Swedish national psyche,..of consensus and equality. It is ... to be modest and avoid extremes.

Similar to Lagom" is the Middle Path in Eastern philosophy, and Aristotle's "golden mean" of moderation in Western philosophy.

So, America, let's have "Lagom" meals; "Lagomish" houses, cars, and visible material wealth in general.

Public Policy Follies, #1: Whence Cometh the Recession and Health Care Crisis

This is written in the spirit of not so much as to be fair-minded, but to express my wonderment at the current wringing of hands and woe-crying from the media and public about the "apparent" causes of the current recession,the health care crisis, and the supposed "greed and excess of business, that I felt the whole picture needed to be discussed and perhaps explained. I am not necessarily pro-business but like to think I am clear minded in some areas, or try to be.

Our business institutions are not parasitic!! In truth, they are staffed by human beings who learn to do their jobs well. As businesses, they are doing what they are supposed to do – maximize profit. They were granted permissions to excess, and freed from common sense regulatory boundaries, by deregulations granted by a series of free-market ideological administrations ... and “voila” here we are deep in the muck of confusion. We've become entrapped in an ideological mire of our own, maybe misguided, making...believing that we can have a "free" market that we can just walk away from and it will govern itself. Wrong! A simple understanding of human nature would tell us, "WRONG". "For-profit", "Privatizing" and de-regulating have naturally given us "health care" INSURANCE institutions that pay most attention to the profit line and least to actual health COVERAGE". De-regulating banking and investment opened the gates to rampant “greed” - profit seeking, searching for regulatory and tax loop holes (“cheating”?), and big rewards – what businesses normally do, and eventual collapse of the economy. What do you expect!!!! Come on.

If you deregulate the business environment for these institutions, you get the plainly obvious - a collection of runaway (but focused) bulls in a china shop. Perhaps more to the point, you can't hope that lions can be made to like oatmeal.

So what is the problem? Less than well-thought out, though perhaps sincere, privatizations and deregulations have given us the current recession, the current health care problem, and more public policy confusions. The solution? Stop the crying and repair the financial regulatory fences and estqablish a public health care "coverage" through a one-payer system. Then let the business Bulls play to their hearts’ content and restore the economy. We can then watch the show in safety.

The Banks Are Not Lending, Oh My!

While one wishes the banks would be more motivated to ease credit (and they aren't), what does one expect? Hungry lions dont choose salad and brie on crackers from the menu. Banks who have been near to failure plus been reamed pretty good by the Feds and media should be expected to return to what we expected of them all along - rigorous, by-the-book lending. Lamentable, but what else could happen from the banks? As usual, there are larger questions such as the nature of business institutions and national loyalty, the cooperation of business institutions with national interests (let's say, national survival), the boundaries between a democracy and facism, and the old bugaboo, the role and powers of transnational corporations.

Not the least in this list of questions one is compelled to look at the definition of business ethics relative to the behavior expected from a real person: imho, they are not the same. Business ethics and cooperation-with-government is a subject that bears thinking about and this blogger will do so and blog about his "discoveries".

Pres. Obama Cautions CEO's "Excess is Out of Fashion" : The Time is Right for "LAGOM" , A Life Style of Moderation for Post-Recession America

This recession hasn't finished teaching uof Fashion" : The Time is Right for "LAGOM" , A Life Style of Moders that the 30 year American idol of Darwinian-capitalist pursuit of riches, where a neighbor in difficulty automatically becomes a "loser" to be put out of mind and forgotten, just doesn't cut it when "we" are in danger of becoming one of "them". President Obama's recent caution to corporate CEO's that "excess is out of fashion" underlines America's need for a less showy of living and a more realistic way we value ourselves. Suggested here is a new valuation scale and life style incorporating the Swedish concept of "LAGOM" , which translates to living in moderation, suitability and balance.

"Lagom" is similar to the Middle Path in Eastern philosophy, and to Aristotle's "golden mean" of moderation in Western philosophy. "Lagom" places value on "just enough" as contrasted to "more is better". "Lagom" values quality over quantity, and favors "sustainable" to the hoarding extremes of consumerism. "Lagom" is modesty and avoiding extremes...to value "just enough" as contrasted to "more is better".

This recession is marked by the frightening prospect of overnight crash from 'plush to bust' that can reach all levels, just ask Bernie Madoff's "clients". But even in better times, most of us have felt the anxiety of not meeting material standards (not having a flat screen tv, not having the most computer memory, and no backyard pool, etc.),]and of being second (the "loser") when we are safe, clean, not hungry and comfortable. Many of us intuited this anxiety didn't make sense or certainly was some kind of monkey best to be gotten off our backs, but who had the time to contemplate when we were so driven to materially excel and garner more than our neighbor in the race to see who next would be the winner, or loser, i.e., the 'rat race'. The rat race to be king of the hill, or certainly not the loser, applies especially to our current form of economic capitalism which has led the recession, to bubbles abd busts in the past, all from a national pusuit of gross accumulation of wealth at all costs - by cheatng corruption, market manipulation, and more ugliness.

The lesson of this recession is that wild frontier, free-market capitalism (theoretically self-regulated, but really NOT!) ala Ayn Rand is just a dream, and worse, a dangerous nightmare of false theater with false fronts, and actors in false face, where "dollars are the ultimate". Time after time all of these falsities come tumbling down killing the fortunes and hopes of too many people, families, countries. However, America can make something good from the current recession by moving to a higher level of maturity - adopting a life style of "LAGOM".

Cultural happiness can be summarized by the following observation about purely economic success (which seems to be the current way America values itself):

"For all its prominence, GDP is only one yardstick of economic performance and it is no guide to social progress. It simply indicates the market value of all goods and services produced in an economy. It takes no account of how income is shared out, or of how it is generated. Few would celebrate a boom in costly divorce cases – but it would be great for GDP."

America can benefit from a new way of living and valuing life, than by valuing soley material accumulations.

So, let's try "Lagom". This does not mean the end of capitalism, just the form we have allowed to become grossly unregulated, out of control and socially irresponsible. Let's have "Lagom" meals; "Lagomish" houses, cars, and apply "Lagom" generally to our lives.