On
February 17, 2020, Daron Acemoglu wrote an article under the title: “Social
Democracy Beats Democratic Socialism,” and had it printed in the online publication,
Project Syndicate.
Ten
days later, on February 27, 2020, Nicholas Vrousalis responded to that article
with one of his own, which came under the title: “Social democracy needs
democratic socialism,” and the subtitle: “If Swedish-style democracy is the
cure to the ills of American capitalism, as some US liberals maintain, then
socialism is its only possible liberal and democratic outcome.” It was printed
in the online publication, Open Democracy.
By
the time you've read both articles, you'll be left with the same kind of
feeling as if you had listened to a pair of grownups, vehemently arguing if
this was a case of six of one, or half a dozen of the other.
Human
beings have been experimenting with politico-economic systems for thousands of
years, and whereas some systems have worked better than others, not one has
delivered justice for all the stakeholders, so as to maintain social
tranquility while delivering continued growth of the economy, and guaranteeing
the advancement of society. But why is it that all those experiments failed?
To
answer that question, we must first acknowledge that the subject is too complex
to be explained solely with the use of the language of politics or economics.
We must use the language of metaphors instead. In fact, one metaphor alone will
not be enough to unpack the subject, but three will do an adequate job.
Consequently,
imagine a pilotless airplane that's attempting to fly towards a stationary
nirvana with a strong wind blowing it from side to side. Now, imagine a train
that's traveling on fixed rail-tracks towards a nirvana that shifts its
position from place to place. And finally imagine a car that's traveling on a
highway whose end is connected to nirvana. And so, as nirvana shifts position
from place to place, the highway swerves in tandem with it to remain connected.
Here,
nirvana represents the politico-economic system that is expected to deliver
justice and equity to all the stakeholders while also delivering a growing
economy. The system shifts from place to place because it depends on the
unpredictable human nature––that which is known as the animal spirit. The wind
that blows the plane from side to side are external factors such as climate
conditions, new inventions, violent social occurrences, and so on––all of which
influence the economy.
Throughout
history, every attempt to devise the “perfect” politico-economic system, has
relied on the idea of launching the economy in a direction that points to where
nirvana is situated. But even if nirvana remained stationary, the winds of
change blowing the airplane from side to side, will prevent it from getting
there. In addition, reality being that nirvana itself keeps shifting position
due to the natural and human factors that act on it, even the train will not
get there, given that it can only travel on fixed tracks, whereas nirvana is
constantly changing positions.
In
effect then, the only way to get to the nirvana of a politico-economic system
that's as perfect as can be, is to use a car that's driven on a highway
connected to nirvana. This means that the driver or drivers of the car must be
awake and alert all the time. He, she or they will maintain the car on the
highway as it bends and swerves, and will get to nirvana despite the external
factors that will be acting on the car.
I
call the use of the plane or the train the “ballistic method” because, once
they are launched into a given direction, they tend to stay on it unless
external factors push them in one direction or another. And I call the use of
the car, the “guided method” because a crew will drive it and guide it to its
destination.
Anyone
that stops for a moment and thinks outside the box, will have no trouble seeing
that science and technology in the fields of computing and communication, have
advanced enough to make it possible to “drive” the economy as easily as to
drive a car. What's required is the hourly input into a computer of such data
as the price of commodities, the hiring and layoff of workers, the sales of
consumer items, the credit card borrowings, the stock market and all the other
components that make up the economic indicators.
An
algorithm will analyze the numbers and provide the team that's driving the
economy with options on what tools to use, and how to use them so as to keep
the economy stable and efficient while also maintaining a high level of
employment. As to the team that's in the drivers' seats, it will be composed of
one member from the central bank, one from treasury, one from labor, one from
the business community, one from the executive branch and one from the
legislative branch.
Like
a crew that is piloting a massive car called “economy” on a highway that is by
no means a straight line, the drivers will use the tools at hand –– fiscal,
monetary, regulation, acquisition, mergers, tradeoff, friendly persuasion,
warning and so on –– to maintain the car on the highway, thus achieve the
desired outcome at the end of every quarter and every year.