Sunday, January 17, 2010

The ideological errors of capitalism II - Adam Smith redux

Moral: Wherein we extend the look at capitalism and argue that reasonable people need to retake both Adam Smith and David Hume from those who have used the poor souls to found their irrational arguments (jawboning, by necessity - as capitalism fosters shell games and migrates to inflationary schemes to the detriment of the people).

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Ideological errors:
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Ah, but reasonable, and irrational, need to be heavily qualified. Hume has had an influence on many sides of arguments, which is interesting in itself. Kant, even, was influenced. Consider, that the casino capitalists, and laissez-faire people, quote Adam makes him turn over in his grave. He bemoans what the best-and-brightest and the fat cats have wrought. We need to give the guy, and his friend Hume, proper rest and honour.

So, how do we do this?

Before we get there, we need to look at how the fat cat perspective came to be. In some cases, it's a modern extension of Lords/Serfs problem. Both of these, naturally, have some sense of entitlement (it's natural). However, the Lords had the power. What you might say is that some haven't attained maturity? Is it not interesting that we can see some many bring their immaturity to the stage so as to begrief others?

Given that in the modern world, another class, namely wizards (oh, they were there before, but of lesser cardinality) can fill their pockets, to boot, does not confound the basic issue.

That an economy, cannot use 'the' economy for several reasons, is a system is obvious. Why else the leaning toward risk management? Yes, that viewpoint (blinders, ought we say?) which two years ago was saying, ah, we have it all in order, never again any downturns.

Oh? It was asked before. That questions remain. Both Hume and Smith will figure strongly, as will others, in the coming discussions.

Now, the scope of the economic system will vary. Now, for the first time, we're verging on some international variety, though there have been fairly large empires before. That is, international on a political scale.

Guess what? The past few decades have seen the emergence of super-dude companies (remember, that we've allowed them personhood) that transcend, in their minds, any political control.

Aside: China, please keep up your ways, as we need to put some of these in their places.

It's time to stop, for now. Let's say this about our friend, Adam. His study was moral philosophy. Any clue to what that is, corporate mucks? Sheesh, Business Week just described the temporary, permanent employee. Ah, so many other things of this nature to describe.

All the while, the best-and-brightest bathe in their tubs of bonus money.

Just like Japan, we stand the chance of having a generation that never gets the opportunity to make traction.

What is all this? Labor gives more value to capitalism than has been allowed. To get away from 'junk' and such, we need to revamp to allow some element of craftsmanship and to recognize that 'touch' is imperative for complicated systems.

Ah, yes, the commentator said, the Street says that their best-and-brightest are their capital. So, they get paid well. Have similar returns ever been applied to any other resource in the past?

Remarks:

01/08/2019 -- Added in the index of posts on this subject.

06/11/2015 -- Computers? Out of control, in more ways than one. Adam rolls over (again and again and ...).

03/16/2015 -- Let them eat cake.

12/15/2012 -- Coase, on the subject.

12/13/2011 -- Pavlov and dogs. May seem appropriate, yet dogs eat mostly to live (that is, we're talking about Pavlov frustrating a biological imperative). We, on the other hand, do not need the ca-pital-sino (invisible hand? -- fantasy).

09/21/2011 -- On Wealth.

04/20/2011 -- Simple living (see Remarks 04/15/2011 - game theory), as opposed to greediness.

03/15/2011 -- The M & Ms are apropos.

10/26/2010 -- Adam knew the failings of 'free markets' quite well.

03/20/2010 -- The basic problem of capitalism is that the Made-offs are its chief representative.

01/19/2010 -- Let's give a toast to JAL! Anyway, how do we get a new look at Adam Smith? We'll use US history. In particular, we're going to go back to Massachusetts Bay Colony and look at a few economic realities. We'll focus on several people, such as families of settlers, blowhards (like John White), and others, at first. Then, we'll expand it to other developments that were congruent in time. Note please, these things pre-date our friend Adam. ... Why do this? To honor Adam, for one. Also, Naisbitt, the futurist, is at it, again. His comparison of China with the U.S. two hundred years ago motivated me to look at his example's basis. Well, then we have to go back further than that (old planters). And, we expect to see that his paralleling example is not as well-founded as he may think. This look will be Economic History and Philosophy rolled into one.

Modified: 01/08/2019

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