How many noticed the passing of John Kenneth Galbraith earlier this year? While I never had an opportunity to meet him, his writing, intellect and experiences have left an indelible mark upon my life. Dr. Galbraith understood that economics is the real political battlefield. Politics are simply a shadow cast by the economic landscape of a society.
His last book, "The Economics of Innocent Fraud" establishes the foundation for free market evolution that is driven by intelligent marketforce demand, a fundamental concept of our work at alonovo. While many have earned insight and significant knowledge of economic theory, few have actually have had the courage to apply it as Dr. Galbraith did. It is one thing to discuss supply-side theory (or other myths) in the hallway, it is another thing entirely to apply a body of knowledge for societal good.
So while I never had the opportunity to meet this great man, if we are to all work together toward evolving a new, real free market economy that is predicated upon social justice, intelligent demand for products that are the result of a supply chain whose components are fair labor, resource conservation, reduction of environmental impact, ethics and balance then we will have gone a long way toward implementing Dr. Galbraith's vision for a fair society.
He made difficult concepts accessible, and did so with a wry sense of humor. Dr. Galbraith commented about political punditry with the following "Nearly all of our political comment originates in Washington. Washington politicians, after talking things over with each other, relay misinformation to Washington journalists who, after further intramural discussion, print it where it is thoughtfully read by the same politicians. It is the only completely closed system for the recycling of garbage that has yet been devised."
While Dr. Galbraith will be severely missed, his ideas, teaching and experiences will continue to provide truthful resistance to either those who believe that tax cuts for the wealthy, the eradication of estate taxes and the consolidation of wealth will stimulate the economy, or those that don't believe such nonsense however have accumulated such wealth, they are happy to silently go along for the malicious ride. His legacy to us is that an intelligent, fair free market economy can exist which will lead to a higher standard of living for everyone without regard to color, gender or class.
Just a few thoughts from my over-caffeinated alphabetic mind.
About the Author: Mr. Polisner founded alonovo.com in March of 2005. He has been working in most aspects of Information Technology since 1981 and was an early commercial adopter of the UNIX operating system. Prior to founding alonovo.com earlier this year, George was a Director at Oracle Corporation. He is a frequent contributor to newspapers regarding political and economic policy and often appears as a guest on radio programs. In fact, when it comes to alonovo.com, it's pretty difficult to get him to stop talking.
