[p2p-research] The mystery of capitalism

Fri Apr 16 16:27:14 CEST 2010

I was assuming that article was satirical or from the Onion <g>

I spent a year in the U.S. education system and of course, it could not be
further from the truth,

Michel

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 9:18 PM, John Haltiwanger <
john.haltiwanger at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is total garbage. Anti-capitalism at the core of education? Capitalism
> never recognized as the Great Engine of Great Societies? Grant must not have
> been educated in the USA, nor tried to have a discussion about health care
> with a Republican. Capitalism is a small-business owner with a few dry
> cleaning places? True, but hardly telling the entire story. I'd like to
> think more of how capitalism is the deforestation of sub-Saharan Africa for
> 4 July barbeques. That a lack of heroes is valorized here is a
>
> Seriously, my experience could not be more different than this
> bizarro-reality Grant is describing. And I should know, I've been a
> "Marxist" since age 12 (1995). That's plenty of time to learn to hate the
> extreme pro-capitalist bend of education and US society in general. The
> media, the government, and all non-radical Leftists and Anarchists pretty
> much get a warm fuzzy over capitalism and pull out anger if their
> assumptions are questioned (Whither externalities, Mr. Smith?). If he is
> talking about a different society, then perhaps his critique is somewhat
> valid. Since he mentions New Hampshire, I'm not sure that is the case.
>
> Also, the link to his blog doesn't work.
>
> John Haltiwanger
> Masters candidate in New Media
> Universiteit van Amsterdam
>
>
>   On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Ryan <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>  Sent to you by Ryan via Google Reader:
>>
>>
>>  The mystery of capitalism<http://cultureby.com/2010/03/the-mystery-of-capitalism.html>
>> via Grant McCracken <http://cultureby.com/> on 4/15/10
>>
>> [image: becker]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.
>>
>> Capitalists are sanguine.  Apparently, they don’t feel they have to tell
>> the story of capitalism.  Somehow capitalism will teach its own lessons.
>>  Once people escape the magic kingdom of education, the truth will dawn.
>>  Once they have spend a little time in the marketplace, the penny will drop.
>>  Or, as the English like to say, "if a man’s not a Marxist at 20, there’s
>> something wrong with his heart.  But if he is still a Marxist at 30, there’s
>> something wrong with his head."
>>
>> When Peter Robinson interviewed Gary Becker, Professor at the University
>> of Chicago and winner of the Nobel Prize, recently, the master surprised
>> Robinson be announcing, "Markets are hard to appreciate."   Robinson asks
>> for clarification and Becker obliges:
>>
>> "People tend to impute good motives to government. And if you assume that
>> government officials are well meaning, then you also tend to assume that
>> government officials always act on behalf of the greater good. People
>> understand that entrepreneurs and investors by contrast just try to make
>> money, not act on behalf of the greater good. And they have trouble seeing
>> how this pursuit of profits can lift the general standard of living. The
>> idea is too counterintuitive. So we’re always up against a kind of in-built
>> suspicion of markets. There’s always a temptation to believe that markets
>> succeed by looting the unfortunate."
>>
>> And I think this gets at some part of the heart of the problem.
>>  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.
>>
>> Script!  Casting!  Some one call the studio!   This is appalling.  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.  Not Hollywood.  Not our mythmakers.  Not our story
>> tellers.
>>
>> The economist has spoken.  It is a little clearer why we do not tell the
>> story of capitalism.  It just doesn’t tell very well. But if the
>> anthropologist may join in here.  Can we at least acknowledge that there is
>> something fabulously odd about a culture that depends on capitalism but that
>> will not ever acknowledge it in the stories it tells itself about itself.
>>
>> References
>>
>> Robinson, Peter.  2010.  Basically an Optimist–Still.  The Wall Street
>> Journal.  March 27 -28.  p. A13.
>>
>>
>>
>>  Things you can do from here:
>>
>>    - Subscribe to Grant McCracken<http://www.google.com/reader/view/user%2F05959803115733688125%2Fsource%2Fcom.google%2Flink?source=email>using
>>    *Google Reader*
>>    - Get started using Google Reader<http://www.google.com/reader/?source=email>to easily keep up with
>>    *all your favorite sites*
>>
>>
>>
>>
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