Posted on 01/09/2011 3:15:32 AM PST by Innovative
Dambisa Moyo is that rare type of person - an economist who makes waves. Her first book, Dead Aid, angered many in the charity sector by arguing that foreign aid has harmed Africa and should be phased out.
Her second, which is published in London on Thursday, accuses America and other Western powers of squandering their world economic dominance through a sustained catalogue of fundamentally flawed policies.
How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly - And the Stark Choices Ahead goes so far as to predict that the US will be a "bona fide socialist welfare state" by the latter part of this century.
"Indeed, if nothing else changes it from its current path," writes Moyo, "it is almost certain that America will move from a fully-fledged capitalist society of entrepreneurs to a socialist nation in just a few decades.
The trouble is, it won't be just any socialist welfare state... the US is on a path to creating the worst and most venal form of welfare state [poorly developed and designed] - one born of desperation from many years of flawed economic policies and a society that rapaciously feeds on itself."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Hannity should have her as a guest on his show.
Moyo achieved a chemistry degree and MBA at Washington DC?s American University, a doctorate in economics from Oxford and a masters from Harvard before working as a consultant at the World Bank and then for nearly a decade at Goldman.
I would say she’s right on the mark.
ping for later
Will be?
We already are. Half of all citizens either directly, or for a ‘private’ company that really only services, works for, or depends upon gov contracts.
She is also right on the mark about foreign aid and unafraid to say the truth.
“In Dead Aid she argued that more than $1 trillion of development aid from Western governments to Africa over the past 50 years has not helped Africa but has ruined it, with millions of people poorer because of aid.”
Some “politicians” (especially liberal, socialists) need to read her stuff. Most of us regular people aren’t in much of a position to change very much, except for our voting influence and what little it can influence the politicians. Leftists are already dedicated to seeing the eventual suicidal outcome in the west, and the world, that she sees.
We probably helped war lords get armed with our aid money as well
I think I’m in love with her mind ;-)
Read the article. She has attended Bilderberg meetings,she believes in “managed” capitalism.
I think she is correct about aid to Africa. Foreign aid almost always goes to despots.
“The trouble is, it won’t be just any socialist welfare state... the US is on a path to creating the worst and most venal form of welfare state [poorly developed and designed] – one born of desperation from many years of flawed economic policies and a society that rapaciously feeds on itself.”
This shows that she appreciates capitalism but believes that it should be centrally managed by an elite class. That’s not American freedom and liberty!
Dambisa Moyo: “I think the markets can work in a managed way,” she says.
“If they’re left to run rampant it’s obviously problematic, but I think they are the best way of delivering economic benefits and have been shown to be the method to generate the biggest economic benefits to the highest number of people.”
Yes, it is a liberal fantasy that with all their stratospheric IQ's, they can somehow "manage" markets better than markets "manage" themselves.
But what, exactly, does it mean to say that a market is "left to run rampant"?
Do you mean, like, the US housing market that was corrupted by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd's policies intended to let people buy houses they could not afford?
This is what liberal's "management" leads to, I'd say.
On the other hand, if all she means by "managed" is enforcing ethical and technical laws, then I have no problem with that.
Enforcing reasonable laws is why we have governments.
So, if that "management" comment is Dambisa's worst sin, I might be willing to forgive it, in view of some of her other pretty good ideas.
We can’t afford it.
Pity it takes an immigrant to point out the obvious to us.
She must have studied the “Road to Serfdom” economics. The free market will never die.
Limits on capitalism need not be imposed by government, but must be imposed by the moral limits of capitalists themselves. Liberty, economic or otherwise, is only suitable for a moral and virtuous people.
I thought we already were.
First, she’ll have to deal with a backlash from proud Americans who don’t agree that the West has been lost.
from Joe 6-pack
“Limits on capitalism need not be imposed by government, but must be imposed by the moral limits of capitalists themselves. Liberty, economic or otherwise, is only suitable for a moral and virtuous people. “
The whole idea of our liberty and freedom necessitates a moral and religious people. The rule of law is only respected by a moral and religious people.
You can make all the laws you want to but went God is removed from society then tyranny of the strongest ensues.
Capitalism itself is a creature of law -- if nothing else, of contract and property laws, and as such, it literally cannot exist outside of some form of law.
Enforcing reasonable laws is government's job.
This job will be more or less difficult depending on "the moral limits of capitalists themselves."
In my experience, most capitalists have a very strong sense of moral limits. But the news is sometimes full of stories about those who don't.
Government, by contrast, works constantly to overextend its authority by attempting to "improve" things it can only make worse.
So the larger problem is not "out of control" capitalism, but rather "run-rampant" government.
In my reading, Dambisa Moyo seems to understand that, at least to some degree...
There's no question that is the case, but I think it's foolish to deny that the two feed off of on another. I also think one needs to make the subtle distinction between "out of control" capitalism (not necessarily a bad thing) and "immoral" capitalism (always a bad thing). As Chesterton said, the problem with capitalism is not too many capitalists, but too few.
One of the nurturers and seed beds of "run rampant" government has been the unions. They in turn grew largely from abusive labor practices. Another example is the growth of trial lawyers and product liability cases. A few legitimate cases where the irresponsible providers of goods and services that took advantage of the consumer have spawned a morass of liability laws and indeed, an entire legal industry that in turn, contributes to an ever encroaching government.
Assume for a moment that all liability laws were suspended. You are a bartender, and a kid comes in celebrating his 21st birthday, with no idea of his limits. Do you keep serving him drinks as long as he has the money, or do you, at some point decide to cut him off? Again, assume that there are no consequences for not doing so. At some point, a moral person/entrepreneur places the value of his fellow man above mere profit solely because it is the right thing to do.
I agree with you that many, if not most entrepreneurs are moral, hardworking, responsible people, but to deny that there are those out there who place money and profit above all other things, and indeed violate the biblical proscription against worshiping mammon, is to deny reality. Certainly, legislative restraints inhibit freedoms, but in a representative republic, many see them as the only solution when individuals or organizations fail to impose moral restraints on themselves.
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