Comments for Ethical Markets: The Exuberance of what is Possible, the Reality of what is Likely at http://atlanticfreepress.com , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://atlanticfreepress.com Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:16:09 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/2344-ethical-markets-the-exuberance-of-what-is-possible-the-reality-of-what-is-likely.html#comment-2960 I'll get for my university library - a guest Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:58:07 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/2344-ethical-markets-the-exuberance-of-what-is-possible-the-reality-of-what-is-likely.html#comment-2959 There was a time when I was innocent enough to believe that philosophers were people who sat down and dreamed up religions, ways of life, legal & ethical codes, etc., and politicians were people who tried to put those dreams into practice. When I was much older, I learned it's just the opposite: Some strong man (or strong men) set up a government which works in ways that please them best. Then politicians take over, and the philosophers come trailing behind to perform the task of justifying the status quo. The true order of events is "de facto" and then "de jure," and not the other way 'round. So it is with Economics (properly a branch of philosophy). Adam Smith didn't invent capitalism. Consider that the closure of the commons was set in motion and freeholders -- peasants and artisans -- were being enslaved by industrialists for perhaps 200 years before Adam Smith was born. Thus "The Wealth of Nations" is original thought only if you admit that it's merely a gloss on events in progress when it was written. In other words, I say that Carolyn Baker is right. Nothing now in print offers any guide for those left to swim in the waters left behind "apres le deluge". As for swimming in the deluge itself, Sir James George Fraser probably gave us the best advice when he noted ". . . the permanent existence of a solid layer of savagery beneath the surface of society, . . . unaffected by the superficial changes of religion and culture." Attend a service at your nearest evangelical church and you will see that there is indeed ". . . a standing menace to civilization. We . . . move on a thin crust which may at any moment be rent by the subterranean forces slumbering below. From time to time a hollow murmur underground or a sudden spurt of flame into the air tells of what is going on beneath our feet." There is, he wrote, "a solid stratum of intellectual agreement among the dull, the weak, the ignorant, and the superstitious, who constitute, unfortunately, the vast majority of mankind." Jimmy sez: Comes a time when enough of those yahoos can't drive their V-8, four-wheel-drive pickups and their motor homes back and forth to work, when they can't pay the rent or buy food because they have no jobs at all, then things are gonna go up in smoke and what the world will look like when the fires go out is anybody's guess. - Jimmy Montague Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:02:10 +0100