Chapter 16: The Capitalist Creed
1. 307- “What enables banks - and the entire
economy - to survive and flourish is our trust in the future. This trust is the sole backing for most of
the money in the world.”
308 “Credit enables us
to build the present at the expense of the future. It’s founded on the
assumption that our future resources are sure to be far more abundant than our
present resources.”
Is that human
foolishness or brilliance at work, here?
2. Business looked like a zero-sum game…You
could cut the pie in many different ways, but it never got any bigger.” This meant that, if one person got ‘richer’,
someone else must be getting poorer - which explains why so many cultures
developed a bias against wealth (as sinful).
311 - Adam Smith, The
Wealth of Nations .“…[A]n increase in the profits of private entrepreneurs is
the basis for the increase in collective wealth and prosperity.”
i.e. Greed is good; by
becoming richer I benefit everybody, not just myself. Egoism IS altruism.
Greed is good for the
collective. Being rich meant being moral.
Are there any
ways in which Smith’s theory was right?
What was problematic about it?
3. 322 “Today some people warn that
twenty-first century corporations are accumulating too much power.”
Agree or
disagree?
4. 323 - Story of the Mississippi shares -
people given a fantasy story, sold everything to invest — believed they’d found
“the easy way to riches.”
323-4: Mississippi story -
stocks became worthless; the big speculators sold in time and emerged
unscathed. The little guys lost
everything - many committed suicide.
What IS that, in
humans? When will we learn? Similarities to the Bernie Madoff story of
the last few years — a recent suicide connected to him, just this month.
5. 329
- The rise of European capitalism - hand in hand with rise of Atlantic
slave trade.
“Unrestrained market
forces, rather than tyrannical kings or racist ideologues, were responsible for
this calamity.” 331 - “did not stem from racist hatred towards africans - those
involved rarely thought about the africans.”
Also the Great Bengal
Famine - financed by upstanding Dutch - loved their kids, gave to charity — but
had no regard for the suffering of 10 million Bengalis.
How is it that a
human can be kind and good in many ways, yet participate in something horrific
and be indifferent to others’ suffering?
6. Capitalism - 2 answers to its critics:
1.
capitalism has created a world that nobody but
a capitalist could run
2.
paradise
is just around the corner - the pie will grow and everyone will get a bigger
piece (never equitable, but enough to satisfy everyone)
Do you agree with
either of these arguments, and why?
Chapter 17: The
Wheels of Industry - The Industrial Revolution
1. 341 ‘Life on the Conveyor Belt’
“The Industrial Revolution was above all else,
the Second Agricultural Revolution.”
What does he mean?
2. “Farm animals stopped being viewed as living
creatures that could feel pain and distress, and instead came to be treated as
machines.” “The industry has no intrinsic interest in the animals’ social and
psychological needs (except when these have a direct impact on production).”
“Just as the Atlantic slave trade did not stem
from hatred towards Africans, so the modern animal industry is not motivated by
animosity. Again, it is fuelled by
indifference.”
What are the similarities or differences
in these two instances?
3. 347 “The Age of Shopping”
A new ethic:
Consumerism
For most of history - scarcity, frugality,
austere ethics
Today - we buy countless products we don’t
really need, and that until yesterday we didn’t know existed.
What are the outcomes of this for us as
individuals, as society, as a world?
4.349
Previous ethical systems - paradise, but only if
you overcome all your vices. Here, it’s the opposite - this ethic allows you to
give in to all of them.
Chapter 18: A
Permanent Revolution
1.352 - Time, clocks
Subject only to the movements of the sun and the
growth cycles of plants.
No uniform working day. Modern industry care little about the sun or
the season. It sanctifies precision and uniformity.
Do you think this has been a good/helpful
change for most of humanity?
How has being on the clock affected you, for good or for ill?
How has being on the clock affected you, for good or for ill?
2. He points out (355) that we are surrounded by
things showing us the time, all the time.
How does that affect your psyche? Is this
similar to always having your phone in hand, always ‘being connected’? Do you experience more joy or relaxation when
you don’t know the time, or does that make you anxious?
3.Collapse of the Family and Community
Before - the nuclear, extended or community
family took care of all our needs
Now - the state does. Health, construction, education, law and
order, etc.
That has had good and bad outcomes - where
would you say the balance lies? Are we
better off with more from the state and market, and less dependence on
family?
4. The mantra was, “Become individuals”, “be
more independent.”
Do you think we have become either of
those things?
5. 365 He argues that it’s almost impossible to
identify a defining attribute of our time, except for constant change - like
defining the colour of a chameleon.
What would YOU say is a defining attribute
of our time?
6. 366
“Real peace is not the mere absence of war. Real peace is the implausibility of
war.”
The law of the jungle - plausible scenario of
war within one year. Today, for most
polities, there is no plausible scenario leading to full-scale conflict within
one year.
How does that make you feel? Relieved? Surprised? Doubtful/skeptical?
7. 372
“Never before has peace been so prevalent that
people could not even imagine war.”
The following were some of the reasons he
cites as to why we live in a time where people can hardly imagine a war. Do you believe these reasons are enough to
prevent another world war?
1. The price of war has gone up dramatically
2. Wealth today cannot be plundered and taken - it’s human capital and
technical know-how
3. Peace is more lucrative than ever - foreign trade and investments
have become all-important
4. Global political culture has shifted - the elites see war as bad and
avoidable.
5. The ‘tightening web of international connections erodes the
independence of most countries,’ lessening the chance of one of them starting a
conflict.
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