Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Brad DeLong — Piketty vs. Piketty

… Piketty is not behaving like a passive chronicler of unavoidable destiny. He is acting as if he believes that the forces he describes in his book can be resisted. If we look at what Piketty does – rather than what he writes – it seems evident that he believes we can collectively make our own destiny, even if the circumstances are not what he, or we, would choose.
Project Syndicate
Piketty vs. Piketty
Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

The wild card in all this is that humanity is now perched on the threshold of a transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. 

The consequences of this transition socially, politically, and economically are likely to be least as profound as the transition from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age, but they cannot be foreseen with any accuracy because complexity and emergence.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"There is a simple box. It has a priceless diamond inside. If you don't know about the diamond, you might treat it like any other box.

But if you knew that a very precious diamond was inside this box, all of a sudden it is no ordinary box."
[Prem Rawat].

You might value this box because it is royalty, you might value this box because it is poor. You might value this box because it can think complex thoughts; and you might value this box because it can run, fast, entertain a crowd - dance on the Corporate floor (covering itself with more $money than Scrooge McDuck). You might value this box because it is beautiful, can sing like a nightingale. But you will never understand why this box was made. And you will never understand what makes each human being truly unique, and truly Valuable, gives us belonging, meaning, significance, and a home - in a universe in which we are less than an atom for a moment in Time! The box is intellectual, emotional, arrogant and proud, forgetful of why it is here; but it is the diamond inside that gives it intelligence - makes it conscious and Real. And this box is a gift, a present, meant to be opened and enjoyed, packed with everything you will ever need, even in a world gone abolutely crazy. No matter the Age that we have to bring harmony to, this is no ordinary box.