Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Stop letting economists off the hook

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Stop letting economists off the hook

Click here to access article by Philip Soos from Business Spectator.

...wealth-maximising economists will serve monied interests in order to enrich themselves, regardless of the effects upon others. Within modern economies, the wealthy are increasingly invested in the financial rather than industrial sectors. Accordingly, economists seek to work at the behest of financial institutions: commercial lenders, investment banks, hedge funds, money management funds, etc. The owners and managers of these institutions, dedicated to maximising short-term profit and power, naturally seek that economists advocate theories and policies that empower them economically and politically.

The author offers the details on how academic people are co-opted to serve the ruling class in a capitalist class structured society--an example of how all class structured social systems function to influence all the subsystems in hierarchically organized societies. He seems to understand how the system works, however he fails to accept the consequences of such a social system. Instead, he lamely offers a moral imperative--"Stop letting economists off the hook".