How to Leave a Mark
by David Brooks
JAN. 27, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/opinion/david-brooks-how-to-leave-a-mark.html?comments#permid=13949593
As so often with Mr. Brooks' commentaries, there are so many things wrong with his propositions that one hardly knows where to begin.
"Government is an ever more rigid and ineffective tool to address market failures." - as much as I dislike many of the things "the government" did in response to the meltdown caused by the "self optimizing" and "self-correcting" invisible hand of market economics, these government programs did indeed stave off complete desaster.
"Impact Investing", as nice as the idea sounds, will NEVER solve, or even mitigate the desasterous social effects of laissez-fair market economies, mainly because the underlying rules will always favor the ruthless greed of unfettered market economy. What is needed is for the rules to chanage - after all, market economies can only exist in the framework of a legal and social (i.e. political) framework, which enables it to exist in the first place. The rules set up by politics to enable market economies must be changed to enable a socially responsible form of market economics, along the lines of the "social market economies" of Western Europe.
For example, by insisting that business, and corporations, have an obligation not only to their shareholders and owners, but also to their employees and society in general, the hyper rapacious nature of corporations can be tamed to a degree - similar to the "Mitbestimmungsrecht" of Germany, which VW tried to implement in its US plants, causing a hue and cry of local politicians.
"Government is an ever more rigid and ineffective tool to address market failures." - as much as I dislike many of the things "the government" did in response to the meltdown caused by the "self optimizing" and "self-correcting" invisible hand of market economics, these government programs did indeed stave off complete desaster.
"Impact Investing", as nice as the idea sounds, will NEVER solve, or even mitigate the desasterous social effects of laissez-fair market economies, mainly because the underlying rules will always favor the ruthless greed of unfettered market economy. What is needed is for the rules to chanage - after all, market economies can only exist in the framework of a legal and social (i.e. political) framework, which enables it to exist in the first place. The rules set up by politics to enable market economies must be changed to enable a socially responsible form of market economics, along the lines of the "social market economies" of Western Europe.
For example, by insisting that business, and corporations, have an obligation not only to their shareholders and owners, but also to their employees and society in general, the hyper rapacious nature of corporations can be tamed to a degree - similar to the "Mitbestimmungsrecht" of Germany, which VW tried to implement in its US plants, causing a hue and cry of local politicians.
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