If you read The Civilian Noninstitutional Population post, you might have wondered… where is all of this coming from?
Why is this guy talking about economics, and why should I bother reading it?
Well, this new series of posts I’ve started are directly picking back up on economic studies I developed back in 2008-2011 as part of my conceptual art think tank, Ape Con Myth.
The pie charts on the door and wall are United States national economic account data.
My story of working with data goes back much further though.
I was fascinated by numbers at an early age.
But far from being able to claim any understanding of it, I think initially I might have been drawn to finance simply from the daily stock market report flashing numbers with strange abbreviations in front of me.
I didn’t know what any of it meant, but it looked like fun, and thanks to shows like Family Ties and movies like Wall Street, the mirage of the markets got me out the door, to New York City and business school.
As it went though, I was disillusioned by the whole thing on the first day of Economics 101.
All it took was seeing the supply and demand curves for me to think better of it all.
Supply and demand are too easily manipulated for it to be the basis of so much, especially when it comes to the way we make our living and attempt to survive.
Ironically, it was leaving business school to study dramatic writing and literature that eventually led me back to my own study of economics, as I literally and figuratively struggled with the concept of making a living firsthand.
That was ultimately the genesis of Ape Con Myth, which operated under the header: “the struggle for survival is an incredible waste of time.”
The premise that we are wasting our lives trying to make a living has only grown more concrete in my mind, from both personal experience and paying attention to the world around me.
Look at us. Look at this mess. We aren’t even trying to make it easier on ourselves.
Supply and demand are getting the best of us all, and it warps the spacetime of our lives every day.
That is in effect why I’m here. That is why everything you see on this site is happening.
We needlessly suffer and struggle. I don’t think it has to be like that.
What do you think?