Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Keynes - an enemy of progress?

I am not serious, of course - he largely did save capitalism though not for the ages but for the moment and most probably not in order for the liberal democracies to revert in good times back to the morally disgusting Victorian "ideas". But this has about happened: I'm sure we'll soon get the ten year old chimney sweeps back with full "freedom of contract". Capital is as triumphant and as short sighted and as irrational as in the 1920's. Actually, just for the hell of it the EU has brought chancellor BrĂ¼ning back. Probably only the slowly dismantling welfare state is the only thing that has kept the good chancellor's repeat performance's concequences away from the streets. (Not totally sure about the streets of Budapest though.)

Keynes was a great statesman, an exceedingly wise man but one does begin to wonder whether he really was too moderate after all, too conservative, too underestimating of the reactionary liberalist tendencies of the market economy. Perhaps democratic socialism should after all be worth a second glance?