Thoughts from the Renegade Economists
Links to current headlines
Films and interviews
Sit back and listen to The Renegade Economist bring sense the the economic situation we are in today. In this instalment we look at how we got here…
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Popularity: 53% [?]
The life expectancy gap between rich and poor people in England is widening, despite years of government and NHS action, a hard-hitting National Audit Office report reveals today.
Popularity: 10% [?]
The life expectancy gap between rich and poor people in England is widening, despite years of government and NHS action, a hard-hitting National Audit Office report reveals today.
Popularity: 10% [?]
An interview on Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman, Gillian Tette, Hugh Hendry and the economist Jeffrey Sachs.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Very interesting thesis Fred.
But isn’t the problem with ethical economics the fact that humans
aren’t very ethical?
For example why on earth should someone wish to be a billionaire?
Then when they are, be obsessed that someone else is a bigger
bilionare than them?
Utopian systems fail due to this competitiveness.
Workers paradises such as North Korea and Brown’s Britain are
dominated by entitled elites who treat the hoi poloi like slaves.
They dont want a fair society because they are happy to be at the top of an unfair one.
I think it may take a great shock such a (hopefully small) nuclear war to convince them that all that competiveness is an undesireable trait and to look for ways of reducing it; e.g. using genetic modification.
I think humans as a species need to become more intelegent and less greedy in order to progress.
I am hopeful that science can provide this in the medium term.
That previous comment post sounds scary. From the perspective of psychology, the unfortunate fact is that most people can be easily swayed to think that a corrupt system is as sensible as one that is just. The problem is that just systems are not as self-reinforcing as corrupt systems are. Starting out with a just system, small changes in favor of one group over another can accumulate until it takes a herculean effort to recover from the impropriety of iniquitous rules slyly introduced by the real world examples of the metaphorical pigs of Orwell.
All the same, all corrupt systems must fail. Having failed, they are forced by common demand to be changed back to a form that is more just, for eventually the abuses engendered through continuing to allow a perverse system to persevere will grow so odious, so loathsome, that the only option will be to abolish its very existence. It is at such points that new experiments in public policy are possible. I personally can only then hope that at that future date people will look toward Henry George, Ellen Brown, the Renegade Economist, Max Keiser and other similarly wise individuals in order to formulate what will come next.