[p2p-research] The mystery of capitalism

Fri Apr 16 18:12:09 CEST 2010

Fascinating show on public airwaves from the US last night on Elbert
Hubbard...the founder of the Roycrofters Community (an idealistic artist
colony / commons from 1897-1938 that performed rather like an industrial
firm.)  It basically told the story of what a strong capitalist Hubbard
was...as someone who went out of his way to extol the virtues of big
industrialists on more than one occasion (though while also blaiming WW1 on
industrialism).

What Hubbard's story taught me is that new ways have been dumped on by both
"sides" for now over 100 years.  Quite a character...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbert_Hubbard

Ryan

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 9:27 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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*
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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Ryan Lanham
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