Capitalism, like ice cream, comes in many flavors
Identity crisis for American capitalism
By Steven Pearlstein, WashPost, Published: May 26
Beneath all the folderol about job creation and destruction at Bain Capital or President Obama’s alleged war against success and free enterprise, there’s actually a legitimate debate to be had about what kind of capitalism we want in the United States.
It turns out that capitalism, like ice cream, comes in many flavors. These different capitalisms can be combined, in the same way chocolate and coffee produce mocha. There are also all sorts of mix-ins and swirls that add to the variety. And while there is a natural instinct to arrange these different forms of capitalism along a left-right axis, that is hardly the most interesting way to think about them.
The first kind of modern capitalism was of the robber baron variety. As the name suggests, this was a period when the economy fell increasingly under the control of a handful of clever entrepreneurs and financiers who ruthlessly used their economic power to enhance their political power, and vice versa. It was an era generally characterized by rapid technological progress, big booms and big busts with widening disparities in income and wealth.
Following the Great Depression, robber baron capitalism gave way to a golden era of “corporate” or “managerial” capitalism, during which growth and innovation were driven by large national and international firms run by trained executives. Competition tended to be gentlemanly and the power of big business was held in check by the federal government (big government) and unions (big labor). Business cycles tended to be relatively tame, and the gap between rich and poor shrank as more Americans joined the middle class. It all seemed to work pretty well until government and labor unions began to squeeze the competitive vitality out of the U.S. economy.
(More here.)
By Steven Pearlstein, WashPost, Published: May 26
Beneath all the folderol about job creation and destruction at Bain Capital or President Obama’s alleged war against success and free enterprise, there’s actually a legitimate debate to be had about what kind of capitalism we want in the United States.
It turns out that capitalism, like ice cream, comes in many flavors. These different capitalisms can be combined, in the same way chocolate and coffee produce mocha. There are also all sorts of mix-ins and swirls that add to the variety. And while there is a natural instinct to arrange these different forms of capitalism along a left-right axis, that is hardly the most interesting way to think about them.
The first kind of modern capitalism was of the robber baron variety. As the name suggests, this was a period when the economy fell increasingly under the control of a handful of clever entrepreneurs and financiers who ruthlessly used their economic power to enhance their political power, and vice versa. It was an era generally characterized by rapid technological progress, big booms and big busts with widening disparities in income and wealth.
Following the Great Depression, robber baron capitalism gave way to a golden era of “corporate” or “managerial” capitalism, during which growth and innovation were driven by large national and international firms run by trained executives. Competition tended to be gentlemanly and the power of big business was held in check by the federal government (big government) and unions (big labor). Business cycles tended to be relatively tame, and the gap between rich and poor shrank as more Americans joined the middle class. It all seemed to work pretty well until government and labor unions began to squeeze the competitive vitality out of the U.S. economy.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home