“Taxing the rich, or capital, does not help the poor. It can throw a spanner into the mightiest engine for lifting up those below us, arising from a new equality, not of material worth but of liberty and dignity. Gini coefficients are not what matter; the Great Enrichment is.”
The Enlightened Economist
The education of an economist
Diane Coyle | former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation
Deidre McCloskey (Chicago School) is held up as a paragon of "enlightened captialism" because of her attention to rights. Really? This is the best they can come up with? This op ed is paen to inequality and the capitalism that produces it as resulting in the greatest good for the greatest number based on the argument that "everyone" is better off than they would be under previous systems. Even Marx granted that.
My comment at FT, which reflects many of the others.
Supply side trickle down.
Ignores economic rent and privilege resulting from power based on social class and wealth.
This is conservatism and economic liberalism, not social liberalism.
Even Marx admitted that capitalism made things better for everyone than under feudalism.
That doesn't means we have to stop where we are or accept privilege and exploitation
In addition, I don' know world the good professor is living in. The lives of the poor are still fraught and homelessness is on the rise in the developed world. She needs to get out more.
1 comment:
Yeah, this is just the "raises all boats" argument again. The FT piece shows no cognizance of the most important and significant contemporary moral, political and economic arguments for an egalitarian agenda - not even so much cognizance as is needed to dismiss them. If this is a taste of all she has managed to come up with, the book will be an easy target.
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