Wednesday, September 17, 2008

ECON 090

Carl hits another homer with this post for the econ literacy impaired. Clear. Straight-forward.

Simply Left Behind: Greed Is God: The Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Greed Is God

"Much of this week, hell, much of this year, has been about the coming economic disaster, which appears is now arriving on Track 13.

It got me to thinking a little about the capitalist system and its built-in, inherent flaw. Hell, it's such an obvious flaw that it boggles the mind that a rational people would choose it for their economy. Even Adam Smith saw it coming and warned against it.

Laissez-faire capitalism can loosely be defined as each person acting in his own interest contributes to the benefit of society at large.

For the large part, this system works pretty well: it's simple, easy to implement, and eventually, all people can benefit from truly free markets.

The one flaw in the ointment, the thing that ultimately Smith warned us on, is, well, greed. I mean, it's right there in the first part of that equation: A person's self-interest...."

2 comments:

billy pilgrim said...

self regulation is an oxymoron.

Bob Harrison said...

Right on, bro. Unfortunately, for many people gratification delayed is gratification denied.