Book Review: George Gilder’s Brilliant ‘Life After Capitalism’
It was probably fifteen years ago that I was at lunch with Banknote Capital’s Jim Fitzgerald. We were finishing up when the conversation shifted to tax rates, at which point Fitzgerald dismissed the notion that lower rates stimulate more work.
To be clear, Fitzgerald was not saying that he opposed lower tax rates. He was and is very much for them. But he was expressing his disdain for the theory that lower rates cause people to work more. In his case, Fitzgerald would work a great deal precisely because there was joy in it.
Still, what he said at the time was jarring. It called into question so much that was accepted wisdom. Gradually it made lots of sense. Tax rates should be low simply because they should be low. After that, it’s perhaps unrealistic to suggest that Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and FedEx founder Fred Smith began to build their remarkable businesses only after consulting the tax code. Work for them was and is similarly joy.
The conversation with Fitzgerald, along with my own evolution on matters economic, came to mind while reading George Gilder’s essential new book, Life After Capitalism. Though Gilder penned what many view as the underlying philosophy of supply-side economics with the brilliant Wealth and Poverty in 1981, in his spectacular 2013 book Knowledge and Power Gilder began to question the “incentive” economics that at least on the surface informs supply-side.
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Jonathan Choe on Fox & Friends: Is Capitalism Causing Homelessness?
Jonathan Choe joins Fox & Friends to debunk the claim that capitalism is to blame for the homelessness crisis in our cities. Instead, he points to leadership continuing to push failed policy that neglects to address the root causes of the issue.
Survival of the Fittest or Survival of the Statist?
John West, Discovery Institute Vice President and author of Darwin Day in America, describes the history of social Darwinism and its influence on economics, government policy, and social institutions.
Life After Capitalism
Revisiting the Simon-Ehrlich Wager 40 Years On
Economist George Gilder on Capitalism, Socialism, and Google
Life After Google author George Gilder explains the role of creativity in capitalism as he shares economic insight on Life, Liberty & Levin. Learning, he says, is the heart of capitalism. Whereas capitalism is about creativity, socialism is about planning and rests on the assumption that we already know everything we need to know in order to plan our future.
China Rising
I just returned from two weeks touring the People’s Republic of China. The Great Wall, 2,200-year-old Terracotta Warriors, the Forbidden City—what an experience! The size of the place is mind-boggling. Shanghai alone has almost as many people as the entire state of Texas. Most of the cities I visited are unattractive in that old communist way, with mile after mile Read More ›
Pope Francis’ Confused Message on the Economy
Writing for Fox News, CWPM Senior Fellow Jay Richards points out that though Pope Francis demonstrates sincere concern for the poor, he has failed to recognize how economic freedom has greatly reduced poverty across the globe. Indeed, thanks to the expansion of free trade, extreme poverty has been cut in half since 1990. Read more as Dr. Richards discusses why Pope Francis needs to clarify his message to distinguish his criticism of corporatist cronyism from a criticism of economies that are founded on rule of law, property rights, and economic freedom.
Why Capitalism Works
Cultural depictions of capitalism are almost all negative. There’s the Monopoly guy with the top hat and cigar. There’s Gordon Gekko saying, “Greed is good.” And, most recently, there’s the hedonism of the “Wolf of Wall Street”. The message is clear: capitalism is selfish. Socialism, or something like it, is selfless. In fact, the opposite is true. Renowned social critic Read More ›