Thinking on Creative Capitalism
Article in TIME by Bill Gates about Creative Capitalism.
In case this link goes away http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/more-on-creative-capitalism/
The authors of Freaknomics open the idea of Bill Gate's Creative Capitalism to economists for a reaction. I am inspired by the idea of Creative Capitalism but I also think it is important for me to know the weaknesses of such an idea.
"My colleague Gary Becker is skeptical of Gates’s concept. I love this excerpt from Becker’s post, arguing that Gates misrepresents Adam Smith’s views on altruism:
[Adam] Smith was skeptical not about the strength of altruism, but about its scope or reach. For example, he uses an example in this book that is highly relevant to the present and to Gates’s quest. He asks “how a man of humanity in Europe” … would respond to hearing “that the great empire of China … was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake …” His answer was that “if he [this man] was to lose his little finger tomorrow, he would not sleep tonight; but, provided he never saw them [i.e, the people of China], he would snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred million of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him than this paltry misfortune of his own.” (Part III, Chapter 3)"
So I wonder, as the Jack Johnson song goes, "why don't the newscasters cry when they read about people who die?" Why don't I?
In case this link goes away http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/more-on-creative-capitalism/
The authors of Freaknomics open the idea of Bill Gate's Creative Capitalism to economists for a reaction. I am inspired by the idea of Creative Capitalism but I also think it is important for me to know the weaknesses of such an idea.
"My colleague Gary Becker is skeptical of Gates’s concept. I love this excerpt from Becker’s post, arguing that Gates misrepresents Adam Smith’s views on altruism:
[Adam] Smith was skeptical not about the strength of altruism, but about its scope or reach. For example, he uses an example in this book that is highly relevant to the present and to Gates’s quest. He asks “how a man of humanity in Europe” … would respond to hearing “that the great empire of China … was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake …” His answer was that “if he [this man] was to lose his little finger tomorrow, he would not sleep tonight; but, provided he never saw them [i.e, the people of China], he would snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred million of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him than this paltry misfortune of his own.” (Part III, Chapter 3)"
So I wonder, as the Jack Johnson song goes, "why don't the newscasters cry when they read about people who die?" Why don't I?
