[mukto-mona] Re: Oh Dear It's Raining! Oh Look The Bank's Gone Broke!

Re: [mukto-mona] Member's article: Oh Dear It's Raining! Oh Look The Bank's Gone Broke!

"Obviously, the wind is blowing against the capitalism, which is the time of high-tide for raising the sail for socialism, and many are just trying to do that. The truth is, we have been through the end of the socialist imperialism, lead by former Soviet Union. Now, we are waiting to see the ultimate fate of the capitalist imperialism, lead by USA, and the end is not in sight yet. What's apparent now is, capitalism or socialism, in its pure form as a standalone system, cannot survive. Perhaps the admixture of these two systems (i.e., the centrist economic policy) may be the prescription for the economic success, and we are going through the testing phase of that experiment. So, lets hold off "socialism good and capitalism no good" rhetoric until the result of this experiment is known."   Jiten Roy   "If something works in theory, a scientist asks if it works in practice. On the other hand, if something works in practice, an ideologue asks if it works in theory."   -Anonymous   I agree with your (I referring to my good friend Dr. Jiten Roy not Mr. Anonymous quoted above) conclusion and the substance of your comments, but not necessarily with each specific comment.  I would like to add that we might be thankfully moving into a post-ideological world. Perhaps the main problem with socialism or capitalism have not been their theoretical shortcomings or practical failures, but the dogmatism of their proponents. We often hear unexamined and unverified assertions such as "corporate greed" or "government inefficiency" is the main source of our economic woes, or popular cliches such as conservatives favor "tax breaks for the rich" which supposedly "burdens the poor" or liberals like to "tax and spend" which then supposedly "slows down the economy".  They do not represent any economic wisdom or economic realities but are the mantras of dogmatic ideologues.  Any professional economist will tell you that the above are some of the myths and fallacies created by politicians and journalists, either out of ignorance or out of motives to cynically exploit public opinion to promote their particular agendas.   It is not that the above statements are completely false; they do have a lot of truth in them but they are not true without qualifications.  They can be called half truths.  It is one of the characteristics of dogmatic ideologues that they elevate half truths into absolute truths. Also, although each pair of assertions above are usually posed as contradictory, they are not.  Most sensible people will agree that corporate greed and government inefficiency are *both* serious problems.  But most people do not realize that these problems are intrinsic. The so-called "corporate greed" is the primary engine which drives a capitalist economy and makes it work, and it is actually something necessary to have.  Likewise, any government, however well-intentioned or disciplined, will be inherently less efficient than a private business performing the same work because of the intrinsic differences in incentives and accountability between the two institutions.  But a private business does not have either the political mandate or the ability to deliver many of the public goods that only a government can deliver.  The solution to these apparent paradoxes lies in instituting and following a set of rules to put restraints on the private market and the public government to limit the harmful effects of their natural and otherwise useful tendencies.  The solution does not lie in decrying their existence or diminishing their rightful roles in building and growing a prosperous and just society.    If I am allowed to use a sports metaphor, to have a good game we need to have a competent referee, a nice even playing field, a set of fair and enforeceable rules, and healthy, talented and yes, aggressive players.  If we try to unduly restrain or indulge any of the parties, or do not have enough rules or too many rules, or have an uneven playing field, we are going to have either a very boring game or worse, a very chaotic game.  Neither would be very enjoyable.   I have a feeling that our President-elect is truly a man of the future, and he foresees our political forces evolving into the post-ideological age, although being a crafty politician, he has used a lot of the old ideological rhetoric himself to win the last election.  I am hoping against hope that he will have the "audacity" to ward off the ideologues on both sides of the aisle, and carry them and the country to the future he envisions.  In that post-ideological arrangement, many of the ideas, policy instruments and institutions of both capitalism and socialism will have places.  In that sense, it will indeed be a mixture of capitalism and socialism.   Best wishes,   M. Harun uz Zaman

 

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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh

http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm

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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf

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MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.

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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm

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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm

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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona 
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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm

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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/


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