Posted: Apr 16, 2011 6:32 pm
psikeyhackr wrote:The problem is that the second industrial revolution was just getting going when Karl Marx died. For instance the transformer was invented in 1876 and Marx died in 1883. Transformers are a fundamental component in the use of electricity.
Henry Ford comes up with the Model-T in 1908.
What did Karl Marx say about the effect of planned obsolescence on the Gross Domestic Product? Planned Obsolescence is a 20th century economic phenomenon. Marx and Smith did not have a clue about it. Keynes was born the year Marx died. I am not aware of Keynes having said anything about it. He died in 1946. The world population was less than 3 billion.
So we are currently in a state where most of the historical ideas do not apply. Galbraith wrote about PO in 1959 in his book The Affluent Society. I think we need to stop focusing on quite dated economic thinking and figure out how technology has changed the economic environment.
But Smith did talk about ENLIGHTENED SELF INTEREST though. Who is supposed to be enlightened? Double-entry accounting is 700 years old. We have cheap computers everywhere. Why shouldn't EVERYBODY know accounting now? Maybe the Economic Wargame depends on most people not knowing how to play. Maybe we need more Game Theory via John von Neumann.
http://www.amazon.com/Neumann-Morgenste ... nskepti-20
It is very interesting what an economist says about accounting though.
http://www.usmessageboard.com/3536705-post148.html
psik
What i tried to do was getting the discussion away from the big trnech war that goes on between proponents and enemies of the free market. Maybe a way of doing this is to go back to the roots of thinking on this issue. But, you are right that just focusing on two big names doesn't mean anything. That won't make an end to the conflict that keeps on going in the Politics forum. Not that i want to make an end to the discussion, i simply try a more sofisticated route.
Cavarka did point out that Smith isn't such a strong adherent of the free market, so i fell in the trap that free market worshippers have made, by using his name for their cause. We can say at least that Marx would never talk positively about enlightened self-interest. So, there is clearly a difference between the two.