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发帖数: 38600 | 1 Can Capitalists Save Capitalism?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/opinion/can-capitalists-save-
Key Democrats have reached agreement on a set of policies known as “
inclusive capitalism”: a forceful market-oriented economic agenda intended
to counter inequality, restrain the accrual of vast wealth at the top and
provide the working and middle classes with improved economic opportunities.
From the White House to Congress to liberal think tanks, recent Democratic
proposals would substantially alter the rules of the marketplace. These
include major revisions of the tax code, legislation to pressure
corporations to increase pay to match productivity growth and an expansion
of refundable tax credits to include low-income workers as well as
households making as much as $80,000 a year.
According to a report by the former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers and
Ed Balls, a top British Labor Party politician, unless there is serious
government intervention, inequality and a lack of financial resources among
those in the bottom half of the income distribution will result in “
insufficient aggregate demand – too little spending by consumers and
businesses to keep gross domestic product at its capacity.” Developed
nations “need new social and political institutions to make 21st century
capitalism work for the many and not the few,” Summers and Balls wrote.
“Inclusive capitalism,” according to its advocates, seeks “to make our
economic system more equitable, more sustainable and more inclusive.” It is
an international movement that has now made its way into Democratic Party
circles.
Mark Carney, the Canadian governor of the Bank of England, articulated a
fundamental premise of inclusive capitalism in a speech delivered in Britain
last May: “Just as any revolution eats its children,” Carney said, “
unchecked market fundamentalism can devour the social capital essential for
the long-term dynamism of capitalism itself.” Among the attendees at the
conference in London in May were such Democratic and liberal luminaries as
Bill Clinton; Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google; and Summers, who
served President Obama as a top economic adviser.
Two of the earliest advocates of inclusive capitalism were the late C.K.
Prahalad, professor of business at the University of Michigan, and Stuart L.
Hart, professor emeritus of strategic management at Cornell. In a widely
cited 2002 article, “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” Prahalad
and Hart argued that powerful corporations could — must — improve the
conditions of the world’s poor by promoting commercial activity, employment
opportunities, access to credit, and wealth creation among those at the
bottom of income distribution – a group they refer to as the fourth tier,
the world’s poorest four billion people.
Prahalad’s core thesis was that the poor could be the
engine of the next round of global trade and prosperity. If we stop thinking
of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as
resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole
new world of opportunity will open up. |
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