Showing posts with label capitalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label capitalism. Show all posts
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Age of Economic Transition
In the 2nd Century AD, Ptolemy devised a theory of the universe that placed the earth at the center of the solar system. That theory accounted for all information known about the universe and allowed for accurate prediction of the seasons. It was an incorrect model but provided a result that was adequate for its time.
As science continued to develop new information about the universe, Ptolemy's model came under criticism. Copernicus suggested an alternative model that placed the sun at the center of the solar system. His theory accounted for all known information but did so in a much simpler manner than Ptolemy. Galileo later proved Copernicus correct but the transition from a Ptolemaic orientation to Copernican was traumatic.
In the 17th Century, Newton provided theories about motion that explained the movement of objects in the heavens and objects on earth. His theories accounted for all the information available at the time. Later, Einstein reconstructed theories about motion and the universe in a way that replaced much of what Newton put forth as law. That transition threw much of physics in disarray but ultimately led to even greater discoveries.
Today, American culture is emerging from a period of transition easily as traumatic as the transition from Ptolemy to Copernicus or Newton to Einstein. We have witnessed this in every area of life. Now, that transition has reached our economic system.
When we began this Great American Experiment, Adam Smith Capitalism was in vogue. At the time, individualism reigned and Smith's theories fit well with America's worldview. Using his ideas, America was propelled to great heights of economic power. But American culture is not stagnant. It has continued to develop. Now, American culture is no longer driven by individualism but by relationalism - the notion that value and meaning are derived from relationship. Fact is no longer seen as absolute fact, but as interpreted fact with the interpretation determined by one's relationship to the 'fact' in question.
Cultural shifts are risky and both Liberals and Conservatives are running scared. Conservatives have rallied around a Darwinian view of capitalism - only the strong survive. While Liberals promote a collective policy - the State should insulate everyone from risk. Neither approach is adequate for American society. Both are passing away. In their place a new era of American Entrepreneurship is emerging. Old forms of employment, business and economics are passing from the scene. New theories and forms are rising to take their place. Just as the ideas of Copernicus, Newton, and Adam Smith replaced those of their predecessors, so also new ideas and forms are replacing theirs.
We live in an era of empowerment and that empowerment reaches to the most vulnerable levels of society. In the coming century, that empowerment will unleash American creativity in an explosion of ideas, solutions, and commerce unlike any in the history of mankind.
As science continued to develop new information about the universe, Ptolemy's model came under criticism. Copernicus suggested an alternative model that placed the sun at the center of the solar system. His theory accounted for all known information but did so in a much simpler manner than Ptolemy. Galileo later proved Copernicus correct but the transition from a Ptolemaic orientation to Copernican was traumatic.
In the 17th Century, Newton provided theories about motion that explained the movement of objects in the heavens and objects on earth. His theories accounted for all the information available at the time. Later, Einstein reconstructed theories about motion and the universe in a way that replaced much of what Newton put forth as law. That transition threw much of physics in disarray but ultimately led to even greater discoveries.
Today, American culture is emerging from a period of transition easily as traumatic as the transition from Ptolemy to Copernicus or Newton to Einstein. We have witnessed this in every area of life. Now, that transition has reached our economic system.
When we began this Great American Experiment, Adam Smith Capitalism was in vogue. At the time, individualism reigned and Smith's theories fit well with America's worldview. Using his ideas, America was propelled to great heights of economic power. But American culture is not stagnant. It has continued to develop. Now, American culture is no longer driven by individualism but by relationalism - the notion that value and meaning are derived from relationship. Fact is no longer seen as absolute fact, but as interpreted fact with the interpretation determined by one's relationship to the 'fact' in question.
Cultural shifts are risky and both Liberals and Conservatives are running scared. Conservatives have rallied around a Darwinian view of capitalism - only the strong survive. While Liberals promote a collective policy - the State should insulate everyone from risk. Neither approach is adequate for American society. Both are passing away. In their place a new era of American Entrepreneurship is emerging. Old forms of employment, business and economics are passing from the scene. New theories and forms are rising to take their place. Just as the ideas of Copernicus, Newton, and Adam Smith replaced those of their predecessors, so also new ideas and forms are replacing theirs.
We live in an era of empowerment and that empowerment reaches to the most vulnerable levels of society. In the coming century, that empowerment will unleash American creativity in an explosion of ideas, solutions, and commerce unlike any in the history of mankind.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Capitalism's Forgotten Moral Responsibility
Communists forgot that economies rest on individual choices. Forgetting that one simple truth left Communism relegated to the trash pile of socioeconomic theories.
In the United States, Capitalists gloated over Communism’s demise and spent the last two decades touting the power of individual choice and the wonders of economic freedom. And along the way, the Capitalists became forgetful, too.
Capitalism’s advocates have forgotten that no individual choice stands alone but rather stands in relationship to every other choice by every other person. Taken together, the individual choices that drive economies form communities. The freedom to attain wealth of immeasurable portion carries with it the moral obligation to address the needs of those who cannot succeed in a system in which success is the product of competition. At its heart, Capitalism produces great wealth, but it also produces an inherent economic disparity between those who thrive on competition and those who don’t.
The American economy moves on two trends. On one track, the trend is toward greater and greater efficiency, empowerment, and access. Yet the same things that promote those qualities – technology, information, and complexity – take the economy on a second trend toward exclusion of those with less skill, less ability, and limited access to education. The kind of Darwinian Capitalism promoted today would see no problem with grinding up those who cannot or will not pull themselves up to the required level of competition. That lack of moral imperative will be the end of our capitalist system.
In the 19th Century, pro-slavery advocates used state sovereignty arguments in an attempt to defend the immoral practice of slavery, and sacrificed the Tenth Amendment doing so. Segregationists of the 20th Century used a similar argument to defend the equally immoral American Apartheid, and sacrificed what remained of state sovereignty in that effort. Now, Darwinian Capitalists are sacrificing the remains of American Capitalism to defend their devotion to materialism. Capitalism can rouse itself to remember its moral obligation, or it can die. The liberty that grants to some the means of attaining great wealth comes at the price of caring for those who cannot, for whatever reason, exercise that liberty.
In the United States, Capitalists gloated over Communism’s demise and spent the last two decades touting the power of individual choice and the wonders of economic freedom. And along the way, the Capitalists became forgetful, too.
Capitalism’s advocates have forgotten that no individual choice stands alone but rather stands in relationship to every other choice by every other person. Taken together, the individual choices that drive economies form communities. The freedom to attain wealth of immeasurable portion carries with it the moral obligation to address the needs of those who cannot succeed in a system in which success is the product of competition. At its heart, Capitalism produces great wealth, but it also produces an inherent economic disparity between those who thrive on competition and those who don’t.
The American economy moves on two trends. On one track, the trend is toward greater and greater efficiency, empowerment, and access. Yet the same things that promote those qualities – technology, information, and complexity – take the economy on a second trend toward exclusion of those with less skill, less ability, and limited access to education. The kind of Darwinian Capitalism promoted today would see no problem with grinding up those who cannot or will not pull themselves up to the required level of competition. That lack of moral imperative will be the end of our capitalist system.
In the 19th Century, pro-slavery advocates used state sovereignty arguments in an attempt to defend the immoral practice of slavery, and sacrificed the Tenth Amendment doing so. Segregationists of the 20th Century used a similar argument to defend the equally immoral American Apartheid, and sacrificed what remained of state sovereignty in that effort. Now, Darwinian Capitalists are sacrificing the remains of American Capitalism to defend their devotion to materialism. Capitalism can rouse itself to remember its moral obligation, or it can die. The liberty that grants to some the means of attaining great wealth comes at the price of caring for those who cannot, for whatever reason, exercise that liberty.