Our Ignorance Will Yield More Crises in Capitalism

Despite recent excesses, the free-market system of capitalism is the superior method for managing economies. Regulations combined with visionary thinking go a long way in establishing public goods like education and healthcare, easing imbalances that concentrate benefits among a few. For the government to undertake such tasks, it must be prodded by an aware, educated citizenry. Some see a model in China’s growth as it embraces some free-market principles, yet “As China grows it must shift to a domestic-demand driven model where it will be much harder to resist internal political pressures to interfere with competition,” writes Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University for the Financial Times. “The idea that Chinese capitalism, which is evolving and transitional, provides a blueprint for the rest of the world, is an absurd exaggeration.” Nations cannot afford ignorance among large groups of citizens who are then swayed by demagogues, Rogoff contends. The globe can anticipate many more painful crises without adequate, far-reaching and lifelong education. – YaleGlobal