"Thinking about Capitalism" is one of my favorite Great Courses.
Jerry Z. Muller says in Lecture 1 “…capitalism is too important and complex a subject to be left to economists because it involves a great deal more…" Muller delivers a balanced historical economic perspective interspersed with incisive insight. If you want to know "how we got here", this is the course.
Old Democrats liked John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) who died decades before his theory was misapplied.
There are many reasons to take this course. First, it is a huge time saver. Having tried to understand the historical realities behind Marx’s thinking or to deal with the huge run on sentences of Hayek, the tight cohesive summaries in this course amaze. Second, it is a huge source of economic pearls.
Third, what we see as reality today was often predicted by the sheer genius of of over 100 years ago. Read why Burke predicted political radicalization in L11, Moser predicted massive social disenfranchisement in L12, and de Tocqueville noted “This taste for material well-being…coupled with a social state…" is characterized by individualism that “...leads to loneliness..." Hegel predicted civil servant control of the economy in L13 (ask your hair dresser about what they go through to get a licence).
Fourth, if you have questions about why things are the way they are, here are the answers. Your questions will differ from mine, so this is just a sample: Where did the culture of “me” come from? See Thomas Hobbes and Voltaire. Yet Rousseau predicted that Voltaire’s consumption would produce “happy slaves" to luxury, poor citizenship, rampant usury, vanity, and a massive wealth gap. Well, that sounds familiar! In 1900, George Simmel identified “individuals whose identities were formed by belonging simultaneously to multiple cultural and social circles". For those of us who don’t understand where our kids are now, read L19.
Where did big government and moral relativism really get started? See the moral philosopher Adam Smith’s master virtue of “self control" was to be groomed through compliance with current marketing aided by governmental oversight. This produced a form of economic “self control" now recognized as an ever-changing moral relativism based on who is in control of market oversight. Yet he stumbled a bit on a source for the “greater virtues” of bravery and fortitude without which a country could not defend itself. Job-hopping and modern disenfranchisement with impersonal corporations…see Schumpeter.
Pornography in schools? See Herbert Marcuse of the German Marxist Frankfurt School [the same school that influenced our own Chicago School and the National Education Association] in 1964 as he argues, “erotic instincts…were being repressed…far more than was necessary". Thus concluding, he goal became to “influence students”.
What caused the death of deferred gratification on which capitalism depends? See Daniel Bell.
Why do our largest newspapers concentrate on economic jabs instead of bipartisan solutions? To quote Schumpeter: “argument in favor of capitalism was too difficult for many people to grasp.”
What could the welfare state, Popes Leo XIII, Pius XI, social gospel Protestants; and secular economics have in common? See John Maynard Keynes.
How so very small groups control today’s societal direction? See Mancur Olson.
There is so much more. Don’t miss that while Keynes promoted governmental deficit “under certain conditions” he called for repayment when times are good. So why, during the last business cycle when the economy has risen nearly asymptotically, has Federal debt not been repaid but rather itself become asymptotic itself? Since Keynes felt that deficits were only valid when capitalism was not producing jobs, the idea of not repaying deficits when unemployment is zero is contradictory to Keynes but compatible with Buchanan’s analysis of a politician bias toward deficit-spending to satisfy an expectant public.
It seems that Murphy himself recognized the immense amount of material he covers and in lecture 36 he provides a framework for course review by dividing his chapters into topics based on recognized tensions between capitalism and…the state, self-interest, the individual, democracy, and the community. This clear course summary also provides a sense of flow of the foundations for modern economic arguments and counter-arguments. It is well worth your time.
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