Read Online Econ 101 - Your Guide to We the People Capitalism: Self-Help for the Trump-Challenged Amid Coronavirus Meltdown RTF
Why does our cover’s likeness of Donald Trump have a dripping tap for the nose?Two reasons.One, ultra-conservatives including Trump continue saluting dysfunctional economic ideas with their basis in outdated, now-irrational 18th Century world views. God rules the economic realm in which nature and the market always get it right. These ultra-conservative claims by laissez-faire’s true-believers impede government’s role.Tragically, Donald Trump’s ardent followers believe government always makes things worse. They believe government mucks up the economy and its capacity to respond promptly and to repair itself in times of crisis. In 2020, dysfunctional views such as these have pushed America closer to the edge of mismanagement, even disaster.Two, both political ideologies (conservative, liberal) continue turning a blind eye to the steady drip-drip out of productive capital investment (what’s coming out of Donald Trump’s nose?) into self-serving rigging, gaming and other wealth-hoarding schemes and strategies called pseudo-capitalism.So, what to do? What might a contemporary Adam Smith do? Remember, Smith was a moral philosopher, not just our first economist. He sought to ask and answer two sorts of questions.First, Smith’s focus was on how to act effectively and ethically, even when many around us may be experiencing meltdown. For instance, how does one keep their cool while managing a retirement portfolio in challenging times such as these? Check out The Motley Fool.Second, the focus of Smith’s follow-on question gets at our common future and those who will live in it: our kids and everyone else’s kids. As “we the people,” what ought we to do? Our response should be the “stewardship thing.” It should be about planning carefully for the future, then negatively sanctioning dysfunctional strategies that make our common futures more bleak. Sadly, Americans know these selfish strategies far too well. Pseudo-capitalists abandon common good-compatible business practices, then pump up their own brands of narrowly defined self-interest.Inside, find our four-item set of common good-compatible take-aways for moving beyond these most dysfunctional moments. Soberingly, this remains the moment of Donald Trump, Coronavirus and patronizing cable news commentaries. Ironically, this also can become the moment of America’s escape from pseudo-capitalism into something far better as we prepare for whatever may be looming; whatever may be beckoning to America’s best leadership and best management practices.How might a “contemporized” moral philosopher such as Adam Smith lead in these times of America’s dysfunctional self-interest? Dig into our four important take-aways, below. Assume for the moment, these four are “Adam Smith sanctioned!”Of course, if you’re ready to dig deeper then jump immediately to our broad-brush assessment of how to reshape America’s economic rules and put the lid on pseudo-capitalism. You’ll find the link in Section 5, below. Or on your way there, how about digging into Sections 1-4? They’re also linked to our website, Capitalism in Crisis dot Org.
