-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.33/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.33/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 33</A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times Aug. 23, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 33 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitalism and "Trivial" Pursuits by Tibor R. Machan In 1958 John Kenneth Galbraith wrote The Affluent Society. In 1998 its 40th edition was published. What was its major thesis? That capitalism has produced a great deal of useless abundance and it is high time this is stopped and the wealth gets directed to the public service sector of society. Everything about capitalism, cried Galbraith, is a shame, especially advertising. It hooks people to products by creating needs we don't naturally have and then satisfying these needs endlessly. Galbraith's thesis is still the primary source of discussion of advertising in most business ethics readers and courses: capitalism produces people who engage primarily in trivial pursuits. What is needed is a strong interjection of government regulation that will restrain us all and then the wealth can be spent on important public projects such as education and health care. It is also one of the most repeated ways in which government spending and intervention in the economy are defended: we don't really know what is best for us and, anyway, the rich are misleading us about what we need by their nasty manipulative advertising and other tricks. We need, in short, the wiser folks in society to rescue us. The fundamentally socialist theory Galbraith advanced has been refuted in both theory and practice. F. A. Hayek answered his nonsense about advertising in the famous essay, "The Non-Sequitur of 'the dependence effect'," and the Soviet Union and its satellites showed us how well government serves the public good. Hayek argued that we can regulate our desires, thank you Mr. Galbraith, quite well on our own, and, moreover, the needs business creates are multiplied by science, art, religion and every other creative activity in life. So we face the task in every realm, not just in commerce, of having to pick and choose by our own wits and discipline. Rejection of the Material Realm Yet Galbraith's views still flourish in America, especially in the media and on university and college campuses. To this date the liberal democrats believe that the government is wiser about what our money should go for than we are. They are still rich baiting - everything that is wrong with the world is blamed on the wealthy and the poor are always victims, never responsible for anything that happens to them. It is the "same old, same old," 40 years since the publication of Mr. Galbraith's book and he is still revered on the left. Why? The basic reason can only be appreciated if we take a look at the history of ideas. In Plato's Republic, specifically, we are taught, at least on first reading, that everything of this earth is base, while everything of the mental realm is noble. That is why, if you will recall, it is the philosopher who must be king - he knows better than do ordinary people do what ought to be done, how society must be organized, how life is to be lived. Yes, this is the rather simple reading of Plato and arguably there is a more plausible, less elitist reading one can give his works. But this is what most of us learn in college when we read the Republic. And it has had its influence big time throughout Western history. Even in the East the primary message of most philosophies and religions has been that what is of this world is transitory, insignificant, and what really matters is the world beyond. Christianity in the West took up the theme and even completely secular outlooks, such as Marxism, echo important parts of it. For example, in Marx's communist society menial work and trade will have disappeared and people will mostly indulge their intellectual curiosity, with the machines that dreaded capitalism had created doing all the dirty work in our lives. Now this is all contrary to common sense. Yes, the mind is vital in human life, but so is nearly everything else. Indeed, the mind is a major power of the body, in a way, and, if used conscientiously, guides us to health and flourishing. A large part of our flourishing comes to nothing less than making the most of the world in which we live. Human flourishing includes, among admittedly many intellectual pursuits, the enjoyment of what we can create from the materials we find around us in the world. All this is predicated on the mind's being free -- a human mind that is regimented, controlled by government or criminals, is very likely to be paralyzed and unable to make the needed judgments for achieving the health and flourishing the agent ought to aspire to. What is Trivial? Human individuals are also very different, by no means all alike, and their differences afford many varied ways of enjoying our lives in this world. Some of us like to go bird watching, others like to play tennis, yet others indulge in stamp collection. We also exhibit very different talents, aptitudes and interests, some of which are very useful to others, so we work at millions of different task, jobs, and careers. In essence, then, what to some of us seem trivial pursuits are life-sustaining and enhancing tasks to others. And it is presumptuous, outright tyrannical, to impose one's own idea of the proper pursuits on everyone else. Galbraith was wrong: the public sector is not only ill qualified to create for us what we need but utterly ignorant of it. Moreover, it is morally vile for it to make the attempt! Contrary to Galbraith's dream, governments are not at all knowledgeable about how all our talents, aptitudes, interests and needs, purposes, wants and desires ought to be coordinated. As Hayek and his teacher von Mises made clear at the beginning of the 20th century, predicting ahead of everyone else the eventual collapse of socialist economies, no central planner can have the immense knowledge needed to coordinate economic and other cultural affairs in society. The way such coordination can occur is through the free exchange of ideas and goods and services, involving the voluntary choices of the millions and millions of people who comprise society. The image of society as one big body with the philosopher king at its head is completely wrong and so to model a legal system on that image is a tragic mistake. It is to get captivated by what is at best a crude analogy. But it has had enormous influence throughout humanity's history. In our time, too, many intellectuals still are hoping that government will take over the health care system, upgrade education, and bolster farming, the arts, sciences and even business. What has lead them on this wild goose chase, in pursuit of the magic (and thus phony) wand of government planning, needs by now to be given up for what it is, namely, a fairy tale with no foundation in reality. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tibor Machan, a philsopher, was previously interviewed by Alberto Mingardi for The Laissez Faire City Times ( http://zolatimes.com/V2.21/Tmachan.html ). He is associated with Freedom Communications of Irvine, CA; the School of Business & Economics, Chapman University, in Orange, CA; and the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 33, August 23, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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