Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Acemoglu and Robinson’s blind spot

Today’s must read is a compelling expression of nausea at the state of American political economy by itself and compared to that of the Chinese.  As someone who has spent a little time in China, I can say that there is a greater sense of the collective welfare there than in America, perhaps driven by higher kinship coefficients across the population.

When I try to explain my politics to folks I generally say something like, “I’m out there at the intersection of Noam Chomsky and Ron Paul and Simon Johnson and Acemoglu and Robinson and Richard Wilkinson…,” and if their eyes glaze over that’s generally the end of the conversation.  The learned helplessness of the American people is stunning, but they keep falling for the lies of the false god of Econ spun by the politicians.

I believe the wedge that will drive reform—if we escape falling into a repressive neofeudalism that could persist for a century—will be a Constitutional amendment to repeal Citizens United, to state once and for all (and these are terms that people should be able to understand) that corporations are not people, money is not speech.

From The American Conservative:

China’s Rise, America’s Fall

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