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• Tuesday, January 29, 2008 10:02 AM

  Why not a return to Keynesian economics?

  I went back and read the original article and was struck by Gate's comment:

  "We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well."

  You would think, by this comment, that Gates is addressing an intractable problem that has yet to be solved. But it has. Konrad Adenauer had his "Market economic policies with a social conscience" (Die Soziale Marktwirtshaft), which were based on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. And it worked. The post WWII era of Keynesian economics was one of the most prosperous of our history.

  So in answer to Gates, yes we have found a way. It's just not a way that is palatable to the plutocrats who run our world as it involves government stepping in to ensure everyone gets a fair share of the spoils, thus lowering their profits from monstrous to merely stupendous. They advocate that The Market do this instead, knowing full well that it never can, since "the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people" cannot serve the poor because capitalism is about wealth and the poor, surprisingly, don't have wealth! Thus Gates and Scott are pretenders and will ever remain pretenders.

  And anyway, it's not the CEOs; I imagine that they are for the most part a fairly decent lot. The real problem is that laissez-faire capitalism is systemically evil and thus cannot, even with all the best will in the world, do what Gates and Scott are claiming it can.

  —ramoncreager Read ramoncreager's other letters
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