Here comes your TGIF King of Simple News.

Here’s a short article that I wrote about 6 months ago that bears repeating. It’s said that, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Certainly the reason for our unemployment isn’t new. Read on for the rest of the story.

Those of you who read the King of Simple News on a regular basis know that my writing often refers to “the law of diminishing returns” and “the point of no return.” In my honest opinion, I believe that the economy of the United States has reached both of these unfortunate junctures.

Let’s examine the law of diminishing returns by taking a gander at the definition of this economic law as provided by Columbia Encyclopedia:

Law of diminishing returns, in economics, is a law stating that if one factor of production is increased while the others remain constant, the overall returns will relatively decrease after a certain point. Thus, for example, if more and more laborers are added to harvest a wheat field, at some point each additional laborer will add relatively less output than his predecessor did, simply because he has less and less of the fixed amount of land to work with.

The principle, first thought to apply only to agriculture, was later accepted as an economic law underlying all productive enterprise. The point at which the law begins to operate is difficult to ascertain, as it varies with improved production technique and other factors. Anticipated by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and implied by Thomas Malthus in his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), the law first came under examination during the discussions in England on free trade and the corn laws. It is also called the law of decreasing returns and the law of variable proportions.

“Holey-moley, you mean there is a mathematically provable written law that explains what is happening to our economy?” Well…yeah, but don’t worry, physics don’t apply in Washington D.C.

At any rate, there you have it, we have been aware of this rigid law (note that I did not say theory) since 1798 and when faced with the consequences of diminishing returns we simply elect our leadership from the social science gang.  The social science folks are slick talkers, but dumber than a hundred head of sheep when it comes to the exact sciences. After all, following such delusional poppycock as the law of diminishing returns could interrupt the limousine service; if you get my drift.

Next, let’s examine “the point of no return.” I don’t need to go to the encyclopedia for this one; I’ve had my share of real time experience testing this rigid law.

I’ll simplify this one with Mikeronomics. If you have 4 hours of fuel in an aircraft and fly away from the airport for 2 hours and 15 minutes; you ain’t going back!

In the case of the United States economy, we’ve been flying away from the airport for about 3 hours and 59 minutes.

It’s said that making an emergency landing at night is best accomplished by watching the altimeter and turning on the landing light when you’re about 500 feet above the ground. If you don’t like what you see; turn it off. The United States, under our present leadership, will be landing in conditions that are darker than the inside of a cow.

It should be evident to everyone by now that Barrack Obama get’s up each morning and says, “*#*@!*#, this is a whole lot harder than community development. And here I was led to believe that ol’ George was the only problem.”

Our young inexperienced president is dealing with the same two problems that George Bush dealt with; the plan for exponential growth was derailed some time back when we reached the point of no return after ignoring the law of diminishing returns for 40 years. Mr. Obama however doesn’t know a thing about economics and therefore his solution is to stay the same course and turn out the landing lights.

There are parachutes for those who have the guts to jump out early.