Truth for Our Time
0618013245
John Kenneth Galbraith
Notes
Reference to a market system is, to repeat, without meaning, erroneous, bland, benign. It emerged from the desire for protection from the unsavory experience of capitalist power and, as noted, the legacy of Marx, Engels, and their devout and exceptionally articulate disciples.
The best of the human past is artistic, literary, religious and scientific accomplishments that emerged from societies where they were the measure of success…all came from communities with a very low Gross Domestic Product.
This fraud has accepted ceremonial aspects: One is a board of directors selected by management, fully subordinate to management but heard as the voice of the shareholders…Approval is assumed, included for management compensation – compensation set be management for itself.
The causes of reduced corporate performance have been realized. They are, invariably, the same – impersonal market forces, absent public restraints, simple theft. The universal remedy: vigorous downsizing – layoffs of those least responsible. The larger the number so released, the better regarded the financial prospect.
Quiet measures enforced by the Federal Reserve are thought to be best approved, best accepted of economic actions. They are manifestly ineffective. They do not accomplish what they are presumed to accomplish. Recession and unemployment or boom and inflation continue. Here is our most cherished and, on examination, most evident form of fraud.
When times are good, higher interest rates do not slow business investment. They do not much matter: the larger prospect for profit is what counts. And in recession or depression, the controlling factor is the poor earnings prospect. At the lower interest rates, housing mortgages are refinanced: the total amount of money so released to debtors is relatively small and some may be saved. Widespread economic effect is absent or insignificant.
It ordains that social success is more automobiles, more television sets, more diverse apparel, a greater volume of all other consumer goods. Also, more and more lethal weaponry. Here is the measure of human achievement. Negative social effects – pollution, destruction of the landscape, the unprotected health of the citizenry, the threat of military action and death – do not count as such.