tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413935813892441553.post2348616700627475986..comments2024-03-20T02:13:42.947-05:00Comments on real economics: The Power to Govern (1937) now available abridged and annotatedJonathan Larsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05217670446743983955noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413935813892441553.post-6116457440449761512015-12-21T21:40:59.997-06:002015-12-21T21:40:59.997-06:00Well, Ken, I hope you will find this reply. I'...Well, Ken, I hope you will find this reply. I've delayed replying because I was not sure what I wanted to write in reply. More accurately, I did not want to come across as being so despondent. I finally decided to write what I have found myself telling people in actual face to face conversations. <br /><br />Short term, I have very little hope. The cult of neo-liberalism is so pervasive that I doubt any existing institutions under current leadership will act competently and justly to the existential crisis of climate change. It is deeply troubling to contemplate how alien a conception "the promotion of the general welfare" has become. I am reminded of what the physicist Max Planck reportedly said: “Science advances one funeral at a time.” I really do not think we have much chance of doing anything useful to save our own asses until the present generation of leaders -- government, media, religious, education, legal, business, most especially business -- passes from the scene. The legal profession and the judiciary is going to be a particular problem. The amount of damage done by the Federalist Society just numbs me. <br /><br />So, that's a pretty dim view. But, long term, I have high hopes. Humanity has always found a way to survive - and we've been through some traumas so gruesome and so awful that it is really impossible to comprehend the full scope of their horror. I think the simple instinct to survive will somehow carry the human race through. <br /><br />And I prefer to believe that the coming traumas caused by climate change will finally convince us of the folly of allowing any concentrations of wealth or of power give rise to new regimes of oligarchs, whether in the form of a simple despotism, of the form of an inverted totalitarianism such as we have today. And we, meaning we the human race, will put in place laws and institutions and cultural norms that will never again allow someone, or some doctrine, to have so much unchallenged power. Tony Wikrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10964470090360660584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413935813892441553.post-60611842311371010462015-12-13T11:27:28.680-06:002015-12-13T11:27:28.680-06:00Hello Tony, I bought your book, thank you. These ...Hello Tony, I bought your book, thank you. These “real economics” posts are usually my first stop when I go on line to check the news. I enjoy and appreciate everything you and Jonathan are doing. I find your particular posts somewhat challenging at times, almost always stimulating, and I try to read them carefully...but regardless of how well that goes I always appreciate what you and Jonathan are trying to do, so thank you.<br /><br />I’m not yet a Kindle fan but for $5 I decided to give it a try. (Nor is Amazon my favorite place but for now I’ll give them another chance too.)<br /><br />Your post on Dec 4, 2015, “Paul Krugman on Challenging the Oligarchy,” was a wonderful history lesson that rang many bells for me. The concept of an “American School of Economics” that you introduced via Michael Hudson in your “real economics” post on Nov 1, 2015 was almost totally new... And now this one about “The Power to Govern.” I'm a bit overwhelmed... So much to know, so much to learn, so little time to learn it. It really is, “Time to Choose!” <br /><br />I look forward to your “chronology of actions, policies, and laws by the national and state governments which helped advance and promote agricultural, industrial, and transportation development.” But I wonder what your views are about the global nature of life on earth these days and what it’s going to take to get to the next level (beyond national and state governments) to a sensible sustainable world order that I believe we’re going to need if there's going to be a sustainable future.GPK SMEThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10844260976638167009noreply@blogger.com