THE BLOG
of John Gelles
May 9, 2006At a rally in favor of American foreign policy, including regime change in Iraq (in Fall 2003), Karen Loberg (the Ventura Star) took the picture. It made the front page.
I was famous for a day.
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH ON LINE,
(WOULD BE SOMETHING LIKE GOOGLE PROMISED)
AND IS DESPERATELY NEEDED NOW
Permit me to start with a copy of my message:
From: John Gelles
To: Email Forums
Subject: Galbraith
Date: May 9, 2006
Some Internet History Is Called For
Under this heading, a pioneer member of our forums was generous enough to tell a history of collaborative communication applications that he and colleagues developed at the beginning of the era in which we live—the IT era, the Information era.
Some Internet History In the Making Is Called For
I have changed the heading to say we need to make history now— before our era is sacrificed for lack of it.
"It" is: wisdom on line for free—to readers of all ages —with the intention to influence elections and counter the money power with the wit to know when we're being had (even being had by ourselves).
Imagine the Google library program applied to all the books and papers of John Kenneth Galbraith. The program, you will remember, is to put on line the classics and knowledge of the ages.
In the case of John Kenneth Galbraith a political foundation should attach itself to his principles and literature. It would be active in the present to keep that literature alive.
It should be true to his democratic pragmatic pluralistic content style and intention.It should want to overcome the tyranny of circumstance — determined not to let blind self-interest and intellectual error needlessly destroy the public interest and the lives of so many people today—and all of us tomorrow.
The Galbraith family would be a fitting source of leadership in this cause to which his mind and pen were committed.
There is no one else born in the 20th Century who has left to the 21st as many relevant sentences, paragraphs and pages to take to heart and with which to build a civilization worthy of our chance.
After sending this message I listened to Fareed Zakaria, host of "Foreign Exchange" a show of news and opinion on PBS. Fareed closed with the following remarks:
Galbraith was probably the most famous intellectual of his generation, a brilliant writer, towering personality, and a genuine wit but his ideas have not worn so well.
Massive poverty programs, large-scale government regulation and extremely high tax rates have been rejected by American voters and reversed in some measure by almost every industrialized country.
It is not Kenneth Galbraith but his archrival and contemporary, Milton Friedman, who reigns supreme — at least that is what the judgment of history looks like today.
Show 218 Transcript - May 5, 2006 Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Zakaria may be fair in reporting the current look of things in the news — but he far off the mark to use the word HISTORY when he does.
History will prove that poverty programs, crime and corruption prevention, and government strategic planning — congruent with the profoundest reading of Galbraith — will come to the rescue of civilized society and the earth it inhabits.
Tax rates will never again be counter-productive. Personal and producer taxes will be replaced by savings, subsidies and inflation protection of fiat money.
We will see anti-inflationary spending taxes and related strategic support for the supply of the needs of the poor and the needs of the earth.
All of the above is my reading of Galbraith. Galbraith said practice and institutions for an economy that works in the long run will not be the gift of an invisible hand.
An economy for the long run will have to be developed by politics, business and labor through hard work, compromise and honest assessments of the cause and effect of successes and failures.
Individuals die in the short run. Economic progress is borne on the shoulders of Galbraith's and their intellectual kin—from the beginning of civilization until time runs out. Friedman and Hayek, price theory and abstract modeling — these are no substitute for honesty in reporting the news and fairness in resolving disputes.
Any copyrighted work reprinted here is for educational non profit purposes --- and at the teachable moment. It was offered free to me on the internet (as a member of a wide audience) and is copied here free to others adding to its value) --- it is fair use of the work.
READING LIST [from Amazon.com]:
Here is a selection of titles currently (or recently) available. Topical books such as his How to get out of Vietnam, 1967 or his 1974 John Kenneth Galbraith introduces India (in which he discusses the nation to which he was US Ambassador in the early 1960s) are no longer easily available.
By JKG
1954 The Great Crash 1929
1958 The Affluent Society
1967 The New Industrial State
1975 Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went
1975 A Journey Through Economic Time: A Firsthand View
1977 The Age of Uncertainty
1981 The Nature of Mass Poverty
1993 American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power
1994 A Short History of Financial Euphoria (Whittle)
1997 The Good Society : The Humane Agenda
2001 A Tenured Professor A novel
2004 The Economics of Innocent Fraud : Truth For Our TimeAbout JKG - Biographical:
1982 A Life in Our Times Autobiographical
1998 Letters to Kennedy. A collection of his correspondence.
2001 Name-Dropping: From FDR On by JKG
2004 Interviews With J.K.Galbraith by JKG and J.R.and J.B.Stanfield
2005 John Kenneth Galbraith : His Life, Politics, Economics by R. Parker
In a review of Galbraith's last book, written in 2004, the issue of war and peace is discussed. Is war ever necessary? Is peace always possible? If peace is always necessary and war is sometimes inevitable we have the paradox of history.
In my view the war in Iraq was necessary when it occurred and was never a matter of choice: My hero JKG, I believe, had a different opinion.
Still, I would like to see an end to war. To reach that goal, I believe, we should seek a multilateral alliance between America, Russia, Europe, China, India and Japan. Additional nations might be added -- if so dictated by necessity.
(What about the UNO and NATO? Is a new alliance possible with old alliances in tact? I think the answer is yes: the UNO is and should remain too weak; but NATO might be changed to be merged with a new alliance.)
Such an alliance could prevent war and terrorism. And it could pave the way to radically reduce the risks of global nuclear war and global warming.
