Every once in awhile you come across an excellent book. It helps define your thoughts, and make you adapt yourself to its principles. Recently, for me this book was, Confessions of an Economics Hit Man. It was great. I think there needs to be driven people in the world. I don't think socialism will work completely. Most of the time 20% of a population ends up controlling 80% of the wealth. There are obviously problems with this.
However, what if this 20% were completely moral and had great social concise and didn't mind being taxed. One of the ideas of economics is that a prohibitively high tax will stifle economic growth. I think we as a society can modify this. In Confession of an EHM the author tells about how certain group just keep growing and expanding, sometimes at the expense of the greater good. As I see it this can be stopped.
I think the rich and driven people need to focus themselves on society as a whole. They should take steps to ensure manageable and sustained growth that includes all relevant parties. If a company wants to expand it's oil field to South America, they can do it, but they need to help the surrounding communities. What's the difference between 1 billion and 800 million, not too much. Imagine what 200 million could do for a local community. I know money isn't everything but it's how we currently store value. By giving back some of the value, people can spread the wealth and reduce the ratio.
People need to let entrepreneurs do their thing. It's a fine balance, but if people are taught young not to be selfish, then we'll go a long way to help things become better for everyone. For me, religion seems to be inseparably tied to this type of action. If more of a majority of the wealthy had morals, I think we'd start to see a monumental shift. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are going in the right direction.
Basically, the book was great and everyone should read it and decide for themselves.
3 comments:
Would I understand the concepts in this book, or is it a lot of economic mumbo jumbo?
-Hil
Hardly any economics. Everything is really simple. It's more about globalization.
I agree with the basic concept, but how to distribute it is in question. Sure, use the money to better education, strengthen infrastructure,healthcare etc. But how to give it to the people in a way that doesn't weaken their need to work & be productive? It cannot be given straight to the people as the more you give the less they do for themselves. A proven generality of course. There is no doubt we as a people need to help lift one another and break the poverty cycle mentality. I agree that you don't want such an imbalance of power. A better way may be for people of all economic standings to learn the power of service and to give time & money themselves, not the government take away and hand out. Good thoughts Tyler... you get me thinking, a great way to start my morning. Take care, Brenda
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