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Galbraith and market capitalism
Galbraith is witty, provocative, stimulating, intelligent, unorthodox, outspoken and eminently readable. He is also vague,
repetitious, arrogant, mercenary, journalistic, dogmatic and an
elitist snob. Above all he is important, challenging, controversial
and confusing. The present book is intended as an attempt to make
sense of the complexities of Galbraith's work and to provide a
tentative assessment of a social critic frighteningly easy to read and
tantalisingly difficult to understand. The present book is also
concerned with the theory and practice of market capitalism, for it is
that which occupies the centre ofthe stage in the epic drama ofthe
Galbraithian system.
John Kenneth Galbraith believes that men orientate themselves not
to phenomena but to the images of those phenomena which they
have formed in their minds; and that ideologies and belief-systems
are of particular value as a map in the somewhat forbidding world of
economic and social reality. It so happens, however, that, because
in explanations of social phenomena 'all tactical advantage is with
the acceptable', 1 that consensus of opinion which is generally taken
as true without further proof is frequently out of date. The
conventional wisdom ensures continuity in social thought and
action; but, since events move more quickly than ideas, it also causes
theory to lag behind practice. The conventional wisdom is thus
conservative of past convictions at the cost of grossly distorted
perceptions concerning contemporary realities. It is a bad map; and
seldom more evidently so, in Galbraith's view, than in the case of
the ideology of market capitalism. This obsolete map around the
complexities of modern economic and social phenomena is seen by
Galbraith to possess the following features:
The ideology of market capitalism argues in terms of perfect
competition (a situation where there are a large number of buyers
and sellers, each a price-taker rather than a price-setter, none with
the power to influence the prices at which he trades his outputs or
the costs which he incurs to purchase his inputs) and rational profitmaximisation (a situation where producers take maximum return
to capital as their objective on the analogy with a self-made, selfreliant, hard-working entrepreneur who, in a market environment
characterised by survival only of the fittest, could afford to have no
other).
Such a system of atomistic competition and free enterprise
capitalism automatically and invisibly ensures the optimal allocation of resources and is thus economically efficient. The system is
in addition socially efficient; for it provides an incentive to the
producer to supply those goods and services for which there is an
effective demand-those goods and services, in other words, which
consumers happen to want to buy.
Ketersediaan
| Call Number | Location | Available |
|---|---|---|
| 330.122 REI g | PSB lt.1 - B. Penunjang | 1 |
| Penerbit | London MacMillan., 1980 |
|---|---|
| Edisi | - |
| Subjek | Capitalism Galbraith John Kenneth |
| ISBN/ISSN | 9780333273456 |
| Klasifikasi | NONE |
| Deskripsi Fisik | vii, 196 p. ; 23 cm. |
| Info Detail Spesifik | - |
| Other Version/Related | Tidak tersedia versi lain |
| Lampiran Berkas | Tidak Ada Data |