13 December 2012
In response to a comment on a
Bloomberg View article, “Romney’s Bain Yielded Private Gains, Socialized Losses,”
Online Gym writes:
“Gozo I sort of agree Capitalism remains the
most-effective economic model....And yes our capitalist model is flawed.
But it takes decades to get it correct....It’s almost like we need to
slow down and review our growth and correct what needs to be
corrected....”
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This is exactly
right: being that capitalism is a human “invention,” of course it has
flaws. Perfection is always the pinnacle to which we aspire, not one on
which it is given to us to stand.
Given that we exist in a
universe cycle of perpetual motion, of perpetual ebb and flow—of
perpetual energy and entropy (as described in Newton’s laws)—the Perfect
is near-certain to exceed our grasp.
This cycle provides the only
canvas available for our great works. Which means that, often, “we need
to slow down and review our growth and correct what needs to be
corrected.”
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The way I see it, the
Conservative mind-set is particularly averse to taking the wrong steps,
in fear of making new mistakes. The hazards of “unintended consequences”
seems to come quickly to the Conservative mind and lips.
That’s a
good thing: the impulsive Progressives need someone to help slow them
up. To keep them from rushing willy-nilly over the cliff.
But,
then society as a whole needs the progressive risk-takers, such the
Wright brothers, who take that cliff-leap and lead us eventually to
flying around the world, seven miles up, at a thousand miles an hour.
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The “slow down and review” process began in earnest with the election of Ronald Reagan as President.
Under his guidance, sure, our debt grew to frightening heights. But things also got brought back down to Earth.
America
took a breath, a pause, following the heady epoch from the Great
Depression to the declines of the Vietnam War and the Great Society.
But
it’s now thirty-two years on. This Conservative pull-back has hampered
us with ideology that, the more its elements fail, the more its
adherents want to double down.
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We need to take a clearer look at capitalism, and how it really works.
First of all, we ought to go read the book, to see how Adam Smith characterizes collaboration as the key element, rather than this thing about “competition” and “greed,” which are essentially side-effects.
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I
think it’s a crime that we don’t teach such essential things in our
schools. I believe we waste a tremendous learning and growth opportunity
in our educational system, by not recognizing the demographic changes
of the last century.
American kids no longer grow up in
single-earner homes, where they learn our culture’s habits and values
there. Instead, our kids learn from television and the Internet and the
streets. It’s no longer enough to teach them history and math/science.
We need to teach them how to manage their economic lives. And how to manage our political society as a whole.
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My
personal, big question is, “How do we get there from here, when the
Right is so-blindingly focused on winning the tug-of-war between sides,
that we have impasse at every turn?”
Unfortunately, I haven’t a
clue. And so I keep coming around to places like this, getting up on my
soapbox, and hoping that I can finally manage to spy something, from
perched on the soapbox’s modest height.
Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!
@GozoTweets
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Read the originating discussion at:
