Jim Devine wrote:
destruction, he goes on to explain
how capitalist markets need controls to keep from careening into chaos...
also, why isn't it "destructive creation"?
From The Further Pathology of the U.S. Economy
Creative Destruction and Destructive Creativity
Joseph Schumpeter, one of the greatest economists of the twentieth
century, proposed that large corporations are ideally suited to leading
the way in innovations. For Schumpeter, the giant corporations clear the
way for progress by developing new products and processes that make huge
swaths of the economy obsolete. Schumpeter described this process as
"creative destruction" (Schumpeter 1950).
Some giant corporations in the U.S. may indeed have grown large by
virtue of creative destruction, but, in general, once these
organizations have reaped their initial rewards they become lethargic
dinosaurs that are destructive of creativity. Just recall IBM's attitude
toward the microcomputer.
War can sometimes energize these beasts for a while. This destructive
creativity gives the illusion that military spending promotes
innovation. It does not. Instead, the urgency of the war effort changes
people's mind-set. The people who contribute their creativity to the war
effort see themselves as serving a higher purpose, however misguided
they might be. In addition, corporations sometimes loosen the
bureaucratic mold during emergencies, offering their researchers more
latitude.
Our challenge should be to develop creative channels through which
people can contribute to more noble goals than the slaughter of their
fellow humans. We need to find a way to make people feel the same sense
of urgency when a child goes to bed hungry as they do when a flag
suffers a supposed indignity. We need to feel as much pride in our smart
students as our smart bombs.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929
530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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