[Anthony LaMantia]

I’m not convinced that CasP becoming (more) influential would necessarily be a sign that capitalism is in trouble.  If anything, capitalism has proven to be quite surprisingly adaptive in the face of challenges from within and externally.

I believe social and economic policy can be a force for good, and bottom-up power can manifest in many forms to transform societies. Vaclav Havel’s The Power of the Powerless (part of Without Force or Lies along with contributions of other social activists that helped lead the “Velvet Revolution”/democratization in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s) was replete with simple ideas that mobilized people in many of the former Eastern-bloc countries. It was a transformative and hopeful time, and not just for western observers.

Having said that, 30 years later, democratization and capitalism for these countries has had a very uneven and (mostly) predictable pattern of state power and dominant capital corrupting those with even the most noble intentions, with a number of these countries falling back in autocracy–a kind of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” phenomenon.

Let’s try blowing up one ridiculous economist article of faith (myth) at a time–i.e. imagine the CasP view on inflation becoming the new conventional wisdom and how that might be used to regulate/impact firms’ ability to indiscriminately raise prices…just because they can.

BTW, I am a CEO.

 

 

 

 

[Author]

Replies