Capitalism

Campus Report ^ | January 14, 2009 | Heather Latham

[bs9021]

Capitalism

by: Heather Latham, January 14, 2009

Matt Miller, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and host of the Left, Right, & Center radio show, was the featured author at an event at CAP, discussing his new book The Tyranny of Dead Ideas. He repeatedly called himself a capitalist, which he should understand the implications of—being an economist. However, he would have done better to argue that he is a capitalist who has converted to something else entirely.

The Tyranny of Dead Ideas is based on six ideas that Miller considers to be either dead, or in one particular case, dying. His description of these is as follows:

• “First: the kids will earn more than we do…. We now have research showing up to 100 million Americans live in families that are earning less than their parents did at the same age. And that really is a crisis for the American dream that I think we have to honestly confront.

• “The second dead idea is the idea that free trade is ‘good’, no matter how many people it hurts. I think the economics profession has done us a disservice by hyping, for political reasons, the case for trade, not being honest enough about its downsides.

• “The third dead idea is your company should take care of you—the whole employer-based system of healthcare and benefits which, again, we uniquely have….The whole idea that if we’re going to look outside the family for a measure of security against life’s major challenges like illness and old age or poverty that we should look to our company, not our country for support......

[jessduntno]

A capitalist?

American Progress Staff
Executive Committee
John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer (currently on leave of absence)

Any questions?

[griswold3]

Remember FDR ‘saved’ capitalism. (NOT!) Is this the tipping point? A The Cloward-Piven Strategy of Orchestrated Crisis ??
This massive government intervention means businesses will have the government as their major competitor.
The ‘progressives’ in Congress must just be drooling at the thought of nationalizing industry!
You never die in the country you were born. Well, it’s been a good run, huh?