I'm not entirely sure what to make of this.
Newsweek's European Economics editor Sefan Theil writes in Foreign Policy on the strong anti-capitalist bias in the French & German education system. If you have the time I'd urge you to read the whole thing because there certainly are some alarming examples of the sort of things you find in French & German text books. In a paragraph though, this sums it up particularly well:
You author isn't anywhere near as knowledgeable about these things as he sometimes pretends but from the little I have read an increasing number of politicians and economists traditionally happy to associate themselves with the right have started to question if we've reached some sort of zenith in terms of the benefits we can derive from free-market economics. Their superiority may have been self-evident by any fair reading of the last century but that doesn’t necessarily mean ‘t’will always be thus’. Climate Change is the perfect example of the sort if issue that free-markets don’t necessarily offer an immediate solution to.
Now, I don’t believe for a minute that the textbooks Theil has a pop at are sophisticated enough to be adopting this stance – it reads just like the lazy anti-market, anti-American prejudice he alleges. But his refusal to recognise that his alternatives could be seen as equally loaded is strange.
Newsweek's European Economics editor Sefan Theil writes in Foreign Policy on the strong anti-capitalist bias in the French & German education system. If you have the time I'd urge you to read the whole thing because there certainly are some alarming examples of the sort of things you find in French & German text books. In a paragraph though, this sums it up particularly well:
"One might expect Europeans to view the world through a slightly left-of-center, social-democratic lens. The surprise is the intensity and depth of the anti-market bias being taught in Europe’s schools. Students learn that private companies destroy jobs while government policy creates them. Employers exploit while the state protects. Free markets offer chaos while government regulation brings order. Globalization is destructive, if not catastrophic. Business is a zero-sum game, the source of a litany of modern social problems. Some enterprising teachers and parents may try to teach an alternative view, and some books are less ideological than others. But given the biases inherent in the curricula, this background is unavoidable. It is the context within which most students develop intellectually. And it’s a belief system that must eventually appear to be the truth"The thing I find slightly troubling is the automatic assumption that the free-market capitalist system is in fact superior. Don't get me wrong, politically I'm far closer to Theil than the authors he quotes and I agree that some of this indoctrination seems wildly inappropriate in an educational context - I'm just struggling to understand what he's actually advocating in its place if it's not just the promotion of the contrary view? He seems to be adopting the position that classic free-market economics is pure science and devoid of any political judgement - ignoring the fact that it supports the centre-right political outlook.
You author isn't anywhere near as knowledgeable about these things as he sometimes pretends but from the little I have read an increasing number of politicians and economists traditionally happy to associate themselves with the right have started to question if we've reached some sort of zenith in terms of the benefits we can derive from free-market economics. Their superiority may have been self-evident by any fair reading of the last century but that doesn’t necessarily mean ‘t’will always be thus’. Climate Change is the perfect example of the sort if issue that free-markets don’t necessarily offer an immediate solution to.
Now, I don’t believe for a minute that the textbooks Theil has a pop at are sophisticated enough to be adopting this stance – it reads just like the lazy anti-market, anti-American prejudice he alleges. But his refusal to recognise that his alternatives could be seen as equally loaded is strange.
Labels: Politics
2 Comments:
Complex.
I would say we had passed a zenith of state intervention which made gains for a while but is now mostly harmful being chiefly a moderating force while the world changed.
We have also passed the zenith of simply "Progressive" Liberalism with a subtler appreciation of the values of culture and tradition as people use them.
This is just wrong , its no good saying 'he says this' and 'he says that'. Capitalism dragged us out of bestial short life of the peasant. It is a good thing and continues to produce good things like the medium in which I am reminding you of this fact.
What government would have given us this ... none . Capitalism is the creative force of growth states are the gardener, ideally pruning and controlling here and there but barren themselses .
These are the ways to approach the subject , this appears to be simple propoganda for the ruling elite
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