McCracken On Capitalism
Loved this blog post by Grant McCracken, which quotes from Peter Robinson's WSJ interview with Gary Becker, the Nobel-winning economist, that I posted the other day. An excerpt from what Grant wrote:
I am always a surprised that no one much bothers to tell the story of capitalism.No, the stories we prefer to tell our children is that capitalism is a dangerous, soulless, relentlessly exploitative exercise. Indeed, this story is so preferred as our received wisdom, that it is exceedingly rare to here anyone recite Adam Smith's magical insight, that good things can and do come from people pursuing their own, sometimes narrow, objectives.
The anti-capitalism view is an ideological fixture of our education systems at every level, from grade to graduate school. We could call it orthodoxy if it were not so much like boilerplate. It's not so much argued as assumed.
...Capitalism is, as Becker says, counterintuitive. It tells a bad story. In fact, it isn't a story. It is anti-storyish.
Capitalism doesn't have heroes. It doesn't have people called to higher motives. It doesn't have noble sacrifices for the good of others. It doesn't, usually, have daring action on a public stage.
No, capitalism is just has some guy who owns a handful of dry cleaning outfits in a small town in New Hampshire. He works hard, supplies a service, pays off his loans, coaches Little League, goes to church, gets his kids through college, and spends his very few disposable hours on the golf course.
...It doesn't matter that out of these mundane activities in lots of towns big and small, played out by millions of people across the US, something remarkable will come. This just isn't a story anyone wants to listen to. So no one much wants to tell it.
Without trying to come off a like a thinker worthy of a lectern at the Chicago school, one thing I noticed in the Becker piece you linked the other day was that his opinion–
"Once people begin spending substantial sums from their own pockets, they become willing to shop around. Ordinary market incentives begin to operate. A good bill would have encouraged that."
–fit nicely with some comments I made about health care in earlier days:
> Nobody in the world --and stereotypes be damned,
> that includes the Israelis-- is as good at finding the
> correct price of things as Americans are.
> But we go to the Doctor and he says "You need
> two of those, one of these, and six of the other
> thing." And he doesn't tell you the price of them
> so that you can consider the value. "
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at March 31, 2010 3:08 AM
This is part of why I got so steamed at Raddy yesterday over the "convenient resources" thing. He's trying to pull human beings away from the decisions they ought to make about how their lives should go... Not even in (their own) life-or-death health care choices, but even whether or not fat people have any business driving to Wal-Mart when they're bored.
This authoritarianism isn't just personally crass and oppressive: It's absolutely poisonous to a society that's fueled by free people making their own choices.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at March 31, 2010 3:12 AM
Those who want others to care for them should be free to do so. If they want to be treated like children, they should not vote. They should let their betters make the decisions for them.
Capitalism isn't perfect, it's just better than the alternatives.
MarkD at March 31, 2010 6:23 AM
Capitalism works because it's essentially a distributed decision-making system. There's more brain power among all of us than among a subset of central managers of the economy, and because an economy is big and complicated, applying more brain power to it results in better net outcomes.
It doesn't have to be that way forever; I can envision a future with augmented intelligences so smart that they really do know what I need better than I do. But we don't have those brains now.
Pseudonym at March 31, 2010 8:07 AM
I will refer you all to the Elfonimics of Yankee Dood It... which was a Warner Bros Short Cartoon from the 50's with Elmer Fudd as the Elven King... the rest of the reason column is also worth a read... but the cartoon is an interesting idealization of traditional capitalism. That doesn't exist and never did, but was an ideal at one point.
Yankee Dood It
SwissArmyD at March 31, 2010 10:15 AM
George Gilder's 1984 book "The Spirit of Enterprise" tells the story of capitalism better than anything I have ever read. I highly, highly recommend it.
D T Nelson at March 31, 2010 12:20 PM
Crid - the problem I have with all those obese people at Wal Mart is they think they have the freedom to stuff their face with triple-meat burgers AND I have to fund their obesity-surgeries and angioplasty. If every single one of them had t sign a waiver for medical care related to their obesity, then I'd be all for their "freedom". BTW, I'm all for making anyone who engages in risky behavior sign such a waiver.
Crusader at March 31, 2010 1:58 PM
> If every single one of them had t sign a waiver
> for medical care related to their obesity...
...Then imagine what waivers you'd be expected to sign as well. Or don't bother... The waiver people are undoubtedly drawing up some treats for you right now.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at March 31, 2010 2:22 PM
Watch this PBS series: The Commanding Heights
It will take six hours.
Worth every minute.
Hey Skipper at April 1, 2010 12:04 AM
Leave a comment