Short Quiz – Life After Capitalism by George Gilder

[johnkarls]

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1. Did our author, George Gilder, write 24 months before our focus book (Life After Capitalism: The Meaning of Wealth, the Future of the Economy, and the Theory of Money) was released 5/30/2023 – an article simply entitled “Life After Capitalism”?

2. Did the article comprise 5,022 words, or about 11 Microsoft Word pages?

[NB: The remaining questions pertain solely to the article.]

3. Does George Gilder state that he had long criticized the assertion that Communist regimes were merely capitalist in a disguise of incompetence?

4. By way of background, does socialism feature governmental ownership of the means of production, and does communism feature “from each according to her/his ability and to each according to her/his need”?

5. So have so-called communist countries such as the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China really ever been communist? Or were they forced to stop at socialism in order to provide incentives for individuals to work, which meant that they were NOT being remunerated in accordance with their need (vs. what was required to get them to work)?

6. So isn’t it intuitively obvious that if socialism (including so-called “communism”) features governmental ownership of the means of production, it would be purely fortuitous if the governmental managers produced what consumers want (contrasted with businesses privately owned and their success/failure governed by their ability to produce what consumers want)?

7. But back to George Gilder’s article, does he then argue that banks no longer make loans to start-up companies, COVID wreaked havoc on the economy, energy production is distorted due to global-warming concerns, and education “is run by manipulative ideologues with lifelong tenure and government appointments, funded by $1.5 trillion in guaranteed student loans”? As a result of which we “live in a new twilight zone beyond capitalism”?

8. In more understandable terms, does George Gilder’s article explain the first sub-title of his subsequent book (“The Meaning of Wealth”) as comprising KNOWLEDGE rather than MATERIALS?

9. In other words, did he argue that ancient cavemen had all of the materials that we have today but lacked the knowledge of what to do with them?

10. Would a good relatively-recent example (not mentioned in the article) be Jimmy Carter who posited that the world has only a limited supply of oil & gas? Which caused him to de-regulate domestic oil & gas prices (to reduce consumption) but impose a “windfall-profit” tax so that oil companies didn’t reap the benefit since he believed there was nothing they could do to increase supply?

11. Would the “windfall-profit” tax have made sense if Jimmy Carter’s assumption of limited supply had been accurate?

12. But would it eliminate any economic incentive to explore in new areas and to increase technology (our author’s famous “knowledge” is “wealth” thesis) so that worldwide oil & gas production today is many times the amount during Jimmy Carter’s reign?

13. Indeed, isn’t “gas fracking” one of the reasons why the U.S. achieved energy independence a few years ago? And, BTW, a major reason why the U.S. production of greenhouse gases declined because natural gas produces less carbon per unit of power than oil?

14. Is another major theme of George Gilder’s article the idea that wealth should be measured in terms of TIME – how many hours/minutes workers have to spend to purchase goods/services?

15. And have “time prices” plummeted as knowledge (aka technology) increases?

16. Do “time prices” always plummet as the result of knowledge increases, or can they also plummet because jobs are exported to take advantage of low-wage workers, workers who are not protected by environmental and safety concerns, etc. (and, in some cases, slave labor)?

17. Is another major thesis of George Gilder’s article that under capitalism, capital migrates not to those who can spend it best, but to those who can expand it best”?

18. Is it possible to summarize George Gilder’s ideas? Or are there so many that you feel that many economic courses would be needed to consider each of them properly?

19. Do you think his zillions of ideas, whether you agree or disagree with each, are fun to consider?