This was the subject of yesterday’s Leviathan at Electric Picnic. www.leviathan.ie As usual, David McWilliam’s was the charming, entertaining MC and he put some tough questions to the panel: brave-for-showing-his-face-instead-of-Fianna-Fail  Green Party TD Eamon Ryan; socialist, journalist and activist Eamon (get out the pikestaffs for the revolution) McCann;  journalist and author Dan O’Brien of The Economist Intelligence Unit (Ireland, Europe and the World, writings on a new century out in October 2009 from www.gillmacmillan.ie) and looking-for-a-blank-sheet-of-paper-to- reimagine-Ireland journalist Margaret E. Ward (that’s me).

It was an interesting debate but since time was constrained I did not have a chance to outline my points so here they are in a nutshell.

1. We are not a capitalist country. In fact, there is no purely capitalist country. Ireland is a mixed economy. We have aspects of capitalism (private controlled enterprise) but some aspects of socialism (government controlled health care, transportation and some energy providers). Even the “there is no way in heck we will every have a remotely socialist policy” United States uses some socialist concepts. For example, military equipment suppliers are guaranteed a profit on everything they make for the US government. They are considered so important to national security that they cannot be allowed to go bankrupt. Poor Obama is also trying to socialise the health care system but those red-paranoid Yanks just won’t see the logic. 

2. Capitalism will never die as long as human beings live according to their true nature – people always want to better their situation.  They work out of self-interest, not some love of the common good despite what some communist and socialist regimes have said in the past.

3. Capitalism is changing.  Most people realise that capitalism is an unfair system that breeds inequity between the haves and have nots. Therefore, a new type of capitalism may be emerging. In the past, some people have called it the Third Way but I think we’re even beyond that concept now. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair are considered supporters of this concept. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way_(centrism) or http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/thirdway-intro.htm or http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/thirdway.html

4. Capitalism is like a pair of shoes. Everybody likes different ones. Each capitalist nation has its own unique features. These countries leaders will continue to make choices about their economic system based on individual style and wear the economic system that suits their intended purpose. For example, you wouldn’t wear high heels if you planned to climb a mountain just as you wouldn’t wear ballet shoes at the Electric Picnic. Know why? You’d get muck absolutely everywhere.

We also talked about NAMA and but I’ll write about my objections to this – management, transparency, risk, timing, control and more – in a different post.

Popularity: 18% [?]