Private gain must no longer be allowed to elbow out the public good

[CousinIT]

https://aeon.co/ideas/private-gain-must-no-longer-be-allowed-to-elbow-out-the-public-good

Adam Smith had an elegant idea when addressing the notorious difficulty that humans face in trying to be smart, efficient and moral. In The Wealth of Nations (1776), he maintained that the baker bakes bread not out of benevolence, but out of self-interest. No doubt, public benefits can result when people pursue what comes easiest: self-interest.

And yet: the logic of private interest – the notion that we should just ‘let the market handle it’ – has serious limitations. Particularly in the United States, the lack of an effective health and social policy in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has brought the contradictions into high relief.

Around the world, the free market rewards competing, positioning and elbowing, so these have become the most desirable qualifications people can have. Empathy, solidarity or concern for the public good are relegated to the family, houses of worship or activism. Meanwhile, the market and private gain don’t account for social stability, health or happiness. As a result, from Cape Town to Washington, the market system has depleted and ravaged the public sphere – public health, public education, public access to a healthy environment – in favour of private gain.

COVID-19 reveals a further irrational component: the people who do essential work – taking care of the sick; picking up our garbage; bringing us food; guaranteeing that we have access to water, electricity and WiFi – are often the very people who earn the least, without benefits or secure contracts. On the other hand, those who often have few identifiably useful skills – the pontificators and chief elbowing officers – continue to be the winners. Think about it: what’s the harm if the executive suites of private equity, corporate law and marketing firms closed down during quarantine? Unless your stock portfolio directly profits from their activities, the answer is likely: none. But it is those people who make millions – sometimes as much in an hour as healthcare workers or delivery personnel make in an entire year.

Simply put, a market system driven by private interests never has protected and never will protect public health, essential kinds of freedom and communal wellbeing.

Many have pointed out the immorality of our system of greed and self-centred gain, its inefficiency, its cruelty, its shortsightedness and its danger to planet and people. But, above all, the logic of self-interest is superficial in that it fails to recognise the obvious: every private accomplishment is possible only on the basis of a thriving commons – a stable society and a healthy environment. How did I become a professor at an elite university? Some wit and hard work, one hopes. But mostly I credit my choice of good parents; being born at the right time and the right place; excellent public schools; fresh air, good food, fabulous friends; lots of people who continuously and reliably provide all the things that I can’t: healthcare, sanitation, electricity, free access to quality information. And, of course, as the scholar Robert H Frank at Cornell University so clearly demonstrated in his 2016 book on the myth of the meritocracy: pure and simple luck. . . .

[malaise]

1. That simple

Society over market

[Hortensis]

2. :) Exception for MY private gain, please. Adam Smith, known as

the father of capitalism and the father of economics, was the very first to explain that capitalism MUST be controlled by regulation. Or ELSE! He was not ambiguous in his predictions of the disaster of uncontrolled markets.

Smith's seminal work was published in 1776, and that knowledge born WITH capitalism has been demonstrated and proven many times since.

The problem is PEOPLE WHO DON'T VOTE and PEOPLE WHO LISTEN TO THE LIES OF FALSE LEADERS.

But we could survive those who were born to be fooled because they're outnumbered. There wouldn't be a single RW extremist in office or leading the Republican party if just a few more people got off their finger for a half hour every 2 years and voted even mediocre semi-good sense.

Who the hell WANTED the regulated New Deal and wonderful, widespread prosperity our grandparents created to be turned into a Republican kleptocracy? NO one.

[crickets]

3. K&R for visibility.