Abstract
A peaceful march toward Concordianism will accelerate its pace if we go beyond the intellectual strictures of two “defunct economists”: Keynes and Hayek. Preeminent leaders of two schools of thought, although long gone, both still dominate and divide the economic discourse of the world. In a thorough treatment of the many interlocked questions, I have explored the issues at some considerable depth. I found solid barriers that made Keynes and Hayek unable to listen to and talk to each other. Beyond the analysis of those barriers, we shall find what ideally unifies them: the need to accept the presence of the Government and the presence of the Market as both necessary—as complementary positions. Has the time come for respective entrenched opponents to lower their barriers? Concordian economics is poised to resolve the ancient, perennial issue of what is the best form of government. The short answer is the government that governs on the basis of self-imposed (hence democratic) rules of economic justice. In this system, The Government—after much vetting—declares a set of economic rights and responsibilities to be shared by the entire nation and leaves the Market free to execute them. Ideally, the vetting will converge on the creation of the set of economic rights and responsibilities enunciated throughout the work on Concordian economics. Once these issues are settled in Sect. 4.1, we can briefly address in Sect. 4.2 what we are leaving behind: a gentle walk-away from both 1% Capitalism and Marxism. In Sect. 4.3, we take a stride toward Concordianism.
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Notes
- 1.
As an example, here are some basic differences concerning the complex issue concerning the measurability of economic affairs. Private, personal values, as Mises (1933: 216 and 217), forcefully insisted, are graded, not measured. And that is sufficient as a starting point to build a subjective micro theory of the market. However, public or social values of real wealth are different. They need to be measured if we want to know where the macro economy stands. Problems of measurement of values of real wealth, ancient problems of imputation, were recognized by Keynes as well as by Hayek; but their suggested solutions (wage units and amount of input) were admittedly unsatisfactory, cf. Keynes (1936: 37–45); Hayek (1941: 202–215). These practical problems are finally resolved in Concordian economics. They are identified and suggestions for solutions are offered; notorious problems of measurement are intellectually solved in Concordian economics, Gorga, (2012a, 2012b).
- 2.
In a detailed essay titled “Individualism: True and False,” as the first essay of a book titled Individualism and Economic Order, Hayek (1948) took great pains to distinguish between two antipodal strains that exist in this tradition.
- 3.
Concordian analysis becomes more complex than either the Austrian or the mainstream analysis, first, because categories of wealth are more detailed and are taken into account from the point of view of supply as well as demand, and, second, because once stocks are seen in action they transform themselves into flows of values that interact among themselves to produce, over time, economic growth and business cycles. The analysis is further refined by noticing that economic categories (not only markets) behave differently at different stages of the business cycle and that such stages often overlap. Finally, all these analyses have to be integrated into one comprehensive understanding of the economic system as a whole in which all agents with their property, controlling or being controlled by all these categories of thought, are not presented as lifeless lists but are put in functional relations with each other.
- 4.
See, Lux (1990).
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Appendix: A Few More Observations on Marxism
Appendix: A Few More Observations on Marxism
The mistakes highlighted in the text do not stem from anything outside Marx’s thinking but from the very core of that thinking. Apart from the unavoidable general influence of the culture of the age, there is no one else, no other entity to blame for those errors. This is the truth, which is hard to swallow for a faithful disciple: Marx was not an economist: he was a very opinionated sociologist. He did not do any field work; his brain sufficed for him.
As to economics, he knew not what is capital. Capital is a wondrous thing. Although not alone, he failed to distinguish financial capital from physical capital. Worse, he assumed that profit, interest, and rent are “surplus value” that is derived from “unpaid labor” (or stolen from workers.)
They are not that. They are the fruit of financial capital, an invaluable benefit to mankind. As my barber next door knew well, and Marxist ideologues still find it hard to recognize, money is the best labor-saving device. Yes, indeed, we have better things to do with our lives than spend our energies on manual labor. Robots can do that for us, but they have to be our robots.
In Marx’s incomplete system of thought there is no room for Archimedes’ conception of the world, a conception that was encapsulated in this statement: Give me a fulcrum, a lever long enough, and I will lift the world. A lever is an expression of physical capital. A lever is not a gift of Nature. A lever itself, or at least the use of the lever, is the creation of the human mind. The universal recommendation to mankind has traditionally been this: Do use the lever to transform the human condition. But not Marx. But not the Marxists.
Capital, in both its financial and physical incarnation, is a factor of production. It is an invaluable factor of production. Capital is not something to be erased from the face of the earth; capital is something to put to work for men and women. Men and women are not destined to work only; they are destined to think, to feel, and to love as well.
To reposition the statement in the text that “Wrong ideals (ideologies) never die because it would be splendid were they to succeed,” one must courageously recognize that it is a divine gift that some ideologies are never materialized: What a horrible world is Marx’s world; what a nightmare of the human mind; what a slavery to the human hand.
Yes, given the assumption that we are descendants of monkeys, our best hope would be to evolve into strong gorillas. This is the best that historical materialism can offer.
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Gorga, C. (2024). A Peaceful March Toward Concordianism. In: Concordian Economics, Vol. 2. Springer Studies in Alternative Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54642-6_4
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