[RC] VALUES CAPITALISM

[Dr. Ernie Prabhakar]

Hi Billy,

On Oct 6, 2005, at 9:00 PM, Avesland at aol.com wrote:

> What Mackey calls "enlightened capitalism" is one form of Values  
> Capitalism.
> What is fundamental to such a system is non-financial motivation.

I do like the term Values Capitalism.  What's funny is that  
originally (and even today) economics talk about 'utility' as the  
internally-perceived 'good' for which money is merely a proxy, but  
then quickly assume that money is a sufficiently-good proxy and  
ignore non-financial considerations.  What is sometimes called the  
'eat the menu' fallacy. :-)

> Here we get to the crux of the problem, however, what is "Good" ?
>
> Who makes that call ?

Ah, therein lies the rub. This is where it gets back to my Manifesto:

http://radicalcentrism.org/manifesto.html
>    χ The best human act is the conscious moral choice
> 	to use my resources to create value for others
>    ρ The next best act is to reward others as they create value for  
> me

The point is that the system works best when *all* of us each use our  
own resources to either create value ourselves, or reward others (as  
consumers, investors, etc.) who create value for us.  We can define  
that narrowly (e.g., buying gas at the lowest price) or broadly  
(donating money to organizations lobbying for a wiser energy policy).

That said, there is a role for group decision making:
>    ν Relative value is best determined
> 	by honest collaborative inquiry into competing alternatives

Which is equivalent to saying, "Those who listen best err least."  
Having some community consensus around Bad Things (murder, child  
pornography) is a useful thing, as it allows/encourages us to focus  
our energy on more productive matters.  However, there's an  
interesting caveat:

	A. You can forbid value destruction
	B. You can NOT force value creation

In other words, social policy works best when bounding negative  
morality (assuming such rules don't exceed the enforcement cost, or  
our epistemic wisdom).  However, it does a poor job of inspiring  
creativity, which is primarily an individual act.

That is why, in my vision of the future, I prefer a smaller but  
smarter government that focuses its efforts on building healthy  
systems for encouraging society-wide value creation.  However, it  
does this not be pursuing some amoral libertarian ideal, but by  
freeing citizens to more effectively create value for others.

Does that help answer your question?

-- Ernie P.