A brief review of the world’s economy in 1961, it reminds me that there was a most ‘dangerous place’ on Earth, Berlin, where likely at that time the U S JFK failed negotiation with then Soviet frontrunner Nikita Khrushchev.
It, as well, reminded me about one decade later after events narrated, when economist Paul Samuelson who wrote a text book titled ‘Economics,” declared that socialism produces a greater economic growth rate than capitalism.
Then, he even asked rhetorically, why ‘do not we adopt socialism? His own frail response appeared to be merely that it ‘ does not fit our individual ethic.’
It seems that Samuelson only expressed the liberal consensus of his time, that’ appears all. When JFK negotiated with The Soviet leader, in JFK’s own mind at that time, he was the frailer party, with his own inferiority complexes, the representative of a gloomy, doomed and inferior economic system at that time. JFK’s lack of success was indeed not surprising anybody.
Contrarily, other free-market economists, such as Hayek, Friedman, Ludwig von Mises gave opinions, at least at the campus and in the classrooms of Columbia University, one of my alma maters, on ‘ Why Socialism Always Fails.’
Such a concept had directly or indirectly educated President Reagan. He then went into his own more vigorous and braver negotiations with the then Sovietes by believing that they, but definitely not President Reagan himself, stood for a rather inferior, gloomy and doomed economic system.
The aforesaid is, at least, my true impression.
Obviously, now, we do not have “survival of the fitest” capitalism that would fail.
In contrast, what we do have now is a combination that can be called capitalism with a “Human Face” (welfare, Social Security, Medicaid,
Medicare, The Affordable Care Act, Veterans Administration, federal funding for local schools, the TARP bank and General Motors bailouts, federal home mortgage relief programs, state and city tax relief for businesses willing to locate inside our borders, etc), not capitalism, so our mixed system of capitalism and socialism does work – though it could certainly be improved to lessen growing poverty due to economic disparities.
As one of my other dear friends, professor Richard has recently said that ‘My politics are to the right of ….. and I’ll vote Republican though my views are libertarian. I don’t believe in Social Security or any other government-sponsored social program. They rob people of dignity. An individual should be able to fend for her/himself.’’
In fact, Rev. Wendell and myself, independently and respectively describe each other as a “modified socialist,” who is what we should have in the USA, but that under most presidents since President Ragen had tilted more and more towards raw capitalism which, in turn, has indeed produced a huge disparity in wealth.
What do you feel about the aforesaid?
Bing Tang
Mineola
