Today I received in the mail a special invitation from "The Economist" newspaper. It said that I could receive 4 issues for free and then decide if I wanted to subscribe or not. Since I have no knowledge whatsoever in this field, nor am I the least bit interested in it (as I'd rather spend my free time dreaming up new hamburgers), I thought it was a divine sign and that by touching the envelope this invitation came in, I would absorb all knowledge related to economy through osmosis. That being said, I am now in a position to analyse with the utmost subtlety our world and its economy.
First of all, let me state that I am a true believer in the virtues of Capitalism as it is probably the most suited economical system ever invented to this date. Its strength lies in the fact that it is compatible with human nature. Contrary to what great minds and philosophers (who, by the way, never had the guts to venture in the hamburger literature) would like to think, human beings aren't benevolent by nature. They tend to be greedy, selfish and most of all short-sighted. I read Karl Marx (and loved his cousins' movies) and I do think that his theories sound great but they are, in no way, compatible with human nature. Just look at what happened in most communist countries up to now. They have all failed and ended up being eaten up by corruption and laziness (one striking example of this is China... Or not). So, Capitalism in the sense that one will earn according to his efforts works well with us humans. It gives us something to look forward to, a justification for our efforts (just like me writing this blog that no one will ever read).
Unfortunately, it seems to me, that we're about to reach the limits of our capitalistic system. When workers are laid off not because their company is going through hard times but just because their CEO thinks that the shareholders will be happier if the company becomes even more profitable than it already is, the system favors laziness and does not reward hard work. How can you expect to make money by not doing anything? How cool a job is it to be a shareholder? How can we justify letting go of hard working people when lazy people will make money out of it? To me, this is exactly why our system is bound to fail.
So what could we do about it?
Well one idea would be to have every single person on this earth drink Vodka Martinis. This will probably alleviate the burden of knowing that our world is coming to an end.
Another answer would be to try and think of a different or better world order. Why not choose our leaders based on their skills (through a national exam for instance) and not their looks or the promises that they will make and not keep? For this to be possible, we would need to build a system where education is free and everyone gets a chance at excelling through hard work. Wouldn't it make more sense to put the most skilled people at the head of our states? Funny enough, this idea does not sound crazy to me. How about you?
Technocracy does make sense (and I’m not talking about a nation whose national anthem would be a Depeche Mode song).
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2 comments:
So did you subsribe to the economist or not? I did
Nope! Too expensive and too complicated for me!
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