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Friday, January 25, 2008

Sighting

Another CMSH (Capitalist mind and socialist heart) sighted. In Davos. It is Bill Gates.India has one of these

*Groan*

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Thus spake doubtinggaurav at 10:19 pm

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seriously, you could not find a better "economist" than Kudlow to quote?

Kudlow thinks Bill Gates and George Soros know less about capitalism than he does. We should all believe Kudlow, of course. Doesn't he appear on CNBC more often than either of the others?

Actually Gates and Soros have a point. Capitalism, in its purest form, (think Adam Smith) does lead to entrenched inequalities because the worker can really ever achieve the economic status of the capitalist (the provider of capital). Smith himself later argued for a more sympathetic attitude for achieving social benefits. So really, I don't see where Gates and Soros are wrong.

Also remember, entrenched inequalities are not good for any political stability. It is in the capitalist's interest to make sure that inequalities (the poverty and violence it begets) do not get out of control.

 3:52 am
doubtinggaurav said...

So you think capitalism has failed Africa and Asia.

 1:28 pm
Anonymous said...

Never mind. I don't think you got any of what I said..

 8:22 am
doubtinggaurav said...

That is true.

 2:53 pm
Ritwik said...

Lekhni,

Even if what you're saying is absolutely correct, that doesn't change the validity of Gaurav's question.

Kudlow, whatever his inadequacies as an economist may be, has a point when he says that a capitalist who has thrived because of the system trashing the system is quite weird. One could, as you have, point out the problems with absolute laissez faire capitalism in theory and say that Bill Gates is correct. That doesn't change the fact that Gates's diagnosis of capitalism as the problem that has failed Africa is just out of the line. Yes, capitalism is imperfect, and yes Africa has failed. But is there a causative effect here? If there are other factors at play that are much more significant, Gates's statement is like that of any other bleeding heart, and becomes especially ironic considering he made his fortune because in his land there aren't too many bleeding hearts willing to take him down. Kudlow is right on his money there.

Apropos Soros, Kudlow is mistaken, and it's clear that it is so because he doesn't understand how Soros meakes his money. Soros exploits the problems with dogmatic laissez faire currency systems and makes his money, and uses that to illustrate the shortcomings of such systems. This is slightly twisted, and hence misunderstood by many (including Kudlow in those nonsensical last two paragraphs, but you don't refer to this aspect either). Just referring to Smith and claiming that Gates and Soros are theoretically right and hence Kudlow is wrong is not enough.

The question remains - do you believe that capitalism has failed Africa and Asia? If not, trashing Gaurav's choice of Kudlow is useless.

 2:10 pm

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