Machiavelli
Well-known member
my main objection to this line of thought is that inequality matters more than income, that its more important to make people a bit more equal than it is to improve peoples income and earning potential (which is what liberalism has provided for billions).
This is well put, but let me pose three problems with it:
-- growth rates were much higher in the UK during the post-war consensus, aka Keynesianism or social democracy, than they have been over the past few decades under what is often referred to as neoliberalism.
-- one of Piketty's claims is that growth rates were high during the twentieth century, but that this is largely an anomaly, and he anticipates that growth rates will remain low during the twenty-first century. While this is speculative, it is based on an extremely voluminous and sound statistical modelling, and has transpired to be the case so far in the twenty-first century.
-- check out the latest interventions from climate scientists, and the vast body of knowledge on the subject, and you'll notice that the climate is being fundamentally changed and that this is the result of growth-at-all-costs economics. Then, have a look at The Stern Report, for instance, or even his more recent reflections on it, where he concedes he was insufficiently radical or pessimistic (if those two words go together). Unless one of the two following factors come into play -- the science is wrong, or we devise a techno-fix -- what the economy will have to do during the twenty-first century if it is to avoid climate crisis or catastrophe (rather than change) is to restrict or, perhaps better, redirect growth into specific areas. The market will not be able to do this on its own.