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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsToo Much Faith in Markets Denies Us the Good Life
By Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky
Jun 7, 2012 6:30 PM ET
(Bloomberg) John Maynard Keyness generation of economists assumed that as people became more efficient at satisfying their wants, they would, and should as rational agents, work less and enjoy life more. Yet power relationships and the insatiability of human wants are such that we have maintained an ethic of acquisitiveness.
International rivalries add fuel to the acquisitive fire. We are constantly being told to gear up to face further challenges, particularly from the Chinese and other poor but industrious peoples. But why, if we already have enough, should we strive for a larger presence in emerging markets?
It is worth recalling that the ideal of economic growth as an end without end is of fairly recent origin. When British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told the voters in 1959 that they had never had it so good, he was echoing the widely held view at the time that the capitalist countries of the West were rapidly approaching a consumption plateau, and the main problem of the future would be to ensure that the fruits of the new abundance were democratically distributed.
Nevertheless, the perception of imminent bliss in the 1960s led to the restoration of Darwinian capitalism in the 1980s. And economic growth quickly and decisively came to trump all other objects of economic policy. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-07/too-much-faith-in-markets-denies-us-the-good-life.html
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Too Much Faith in Markets Denies Us the Good Life (Original Post)
marmar
Jun 2012
OP
JHB
(37,166 posts)1. Economic Panglossianism
"All is for the best in this freeest of all possible markets"
But it pays well for some, and they have money to invest in politicians, so it's gone on for so long.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)3. I'm stealing that term!
dkf
(37,305 posts)2. This also points to the fact that some jobs require you to have no life.