George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
Up at National Review Online is a stupendous dissemination of why freer economic markets and entrepreneurial activities matter to the heart and soul of a nation. That stupendous dissemination is written by none other than the great George Gilder.
An excerpt:
America’s wealth is not an inventory of goods; it is an organic entity, a fragile pulsing fabric of ideas, expectations, loyalties, moral commitments, visions. To vivisect it for redistribution is to kill it. As President Mitterrand’s French technocrats discovered in the 1980s, and President Obama’s quixotic ecocrats are discovering today, government managers of complex systems of wealth soon find they are administering an industrial corpse, a socialized Solyndra.
He continues:
The belief that wealth consists not chiefly in ideas, attitudes, moral codes, and mental disciplines but in definable static things that can be seized and redistributed — that is the materialist superstition. It stultified the works of Marx and other prophets of violence and envy. It betrays every person who seeks to redistribute wealth by coercion. It balks every socialist revolutionary who imagines that by seizing the so-called means of production he can capture the crucial capital of an economy. It baffles nearly every conglomerateur who believes he can safely enter new industries by buying rather than by learning them. It confounds every bureaucrat of science who imagines he can buy or steal the fruits of research and development.
Wow. That's good stuff. And it couldn't be more timely for the debate that has been bubbling under the surface since FDR's New Deal -- a debate that has been brought to the fore with the introduction of Paul Ryan to the national stage. What sort of government and economy do we want? What sort of existence do we desire for ourselves and our children? Is capitalism truly the bane of humanity's existence, as so many intellectuals and progressives would have us believe? Do planned societies and controlled economies actually work better than largely unfettered markets?
The most important arrow in the Center-Right's quiver is this: free enterprise is a moral good and logical necessity for all the other freedoms we enjoy and celebrate. Without it, we are no longer a republic.
For a little something extra from Mr. Gilder, here's a brief clip on the importance of accurately defining and describing "profit":
- Comment (9)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (4)
Comments:
Jul '12
Re: George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
Gilder has been a leading conservative intellectual for 30 years or more. Wonderful ideas.
Dec '10
Re: George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
I'm taking it upon myself to make sure that all of us who were born less than 30 years ago know, understand and appreciate his work!
Oct '10
Re: George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
I am taking a break from reading the original post in National Review. I can already see that there will be considerable time and effort investment to appreciate what he is saying. Gilder's genius has been evident to me for many decades, ever since I first read Men and Marriage.
But this! This is an explanation of the greatness of the free man's impulse towards capitalism that will never be understood by politicians and academics. In many ways he makes it clear without even going there that we are doomed if we ever surrender to the arrangers and organizers who seek order in the economy.
There is so much here to explain why the great innovators who remain "tied to the mast" are the success of freedom. It also explains why an immature innovator like Mark Zuckerberg's impatience to reap his reward will kill FaceBook.
Wealth is a dynamic that requires perpetual effort to remain successful.
These are ideas beyond the political process, and will be poisoned by it.
Aug '12
Re: George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
Thank you so much for posting this. I loved his comments to the effect that profit is actually the opposite of selfish greed, because in order to make profits a business has to be very in tune with the wants and needs of its customers. He expressed it much more elegantly than I have paraphrased it here. I admire people so much that can open up an aspect of a very familiar topic that you hadn't considered before.
@raycon I've read The Israel Test; Men and Marriage is in my TBR pile after hearing how much Dennis Prager says it changed his ideas about women and men in his young 20s.
Jun '10
Re: George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
Try as you might, you can't redistribute the dreams (the G-rated ones) of backyard tinkerers and science nerds. Obama would if he could, but he can't.
Edited on August 23, 2012 at 10:01amSep '10
Re: George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
George Gilder is a treasure. Glad to see him writing again. Couldn't come at a better moment.
Apr '11
Re: George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
For those interested (and I hope it is many of us here), Gilder was interviewed, for BookTV, at Freedom Fest '12 on the occasion of the updating of "Wealth and Poverty," where the essay here (and in NR) comes from. It is only half an hour, but presents a rare chance to hear him on video. I hope BookTV repeats it. Gilder is not the most entertaining speaker, but he is engaged and burns with his ideas.
The interview was taped in the lobby of the Bally hotel in Las Vegas, if I recall correctly. In the background is a constant stream of foot traffic because the chat was held in the registration area. Near the end of the half hour, the sharp eyed may spot Mark Levin strolling by, glancing over at Gilder!
Edited on August 23, 2012 at 11:25pmAug '10
Re: George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
This is one of the best essays I've read in several years. He captures the inherent beauty of capitalism wonderfully.
A couple of choice sentences:
The belief that wealth consists not chiefly in ideas, attitudes, moral codes, and mental disciplines but in definable static things that can be seized and redistributed — that is the materialist superstition.
And...
The key issue in economics is not aligning incentives with some putative public good but aligning power with knowledge.
Aug '12
Re: George Gilder on 'Benevolent Creativity'
Some really great quotes throughout the Gilder article, however "Christian altruism" doesn't exist. What did Auguste Comte find lacking in "charity" or "esteem" that "altruism" had to be coined? To give to , or have regard for, another one need not deny one's own self. I think altruism was coined with just such a denial in mind.