Part 2 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 6 “Tuesdays with Mandeville” As introduced in the last blog, Bernard Mandeville pioneered writing about the hypocrisy he thought was endemic to commerce that was a conversation happily continued by many to follow. Foster dives…
Tag: Bourgeois Deal
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Penning Hypocrisy: Writers Making Money Criticizing Capitalism
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 6 “Tuesdays with Mandeville” Foster is tracing anti-capitalist thought across many writers of the West, and in this chapter he hits one I had not heard of: Bernard Mandeville who was born in 1670 in…
Bourgeois Equality
Both the Right and the Left Oppose the Bourgeois
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 65 “Despite the Clerisy’s Doubts” Dr. McCloskey continues her discussion of the threats to a continuation of the bourgeois trade tested system of betterment that has given us a 3000% to 10,000% growth in incomes over the past two hundred years. In this chapter…
Bourgeois Equality
Peter Pan Bohemians Think They Know Best How We Should Live
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 64 “Anticonsumerism and Pro-Bohemianism were Fruits of the Antibetterment Reaction” Last chapter, Dr. McCloskey described two alternative deals the clerisy preferred as alternatives to the Bourgeois Deal. The Bolshevik Deal represents attempts at Communism as in the former Soviet Union, and the Bismarckian Deal lives on…
Bourgeois Equality
The Elite Replaced the Bourgeois Deal with Ones that Put Them in Charge
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 63 “The Clerisy Betrayed the Bourgeois Deal, and Approved the Bolshevik and Bismarckian Deals” Finally, we reach the chapter that explains what Dr. McCloskey has been alluding to throughout the book about the clerisy’s change in rhetoric against the Bourgeois Deal. What she calls the clerisy…
Bourgeois Equality
The Great Conversion Threatens the Great Enrichment
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 62 “After 1848 the Clerisy Converted to Antibetterment” As we start Part X, the last part of Dr. McCloskey’s book, she turns to the threats facing the Great Enrichment. She has argued that what allowed the Great Enrichment to take root in England around…
Bourgeois Equality
Knowing the Source of the Great Enrichment Is Crucial
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 56 “The Change in Ideas Contradicts Many Ideas from the Political Middle, 1890–1980” Not only is this chapter starting Part 9 out of 10 of Dr. McCloskey’s book, but these last 2 parts are addressing the fourth, and last, big question: What are the…
Bourgeois Equality
But It Was a Shallow Change
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 53 “It Was Not a Deep Cultural Change” Dr. McCloskey continues to examine the power of rhetoric, what we may now call the narrative, on society and the economy. Why did the Great Enrichment take root around 1700 in England? Capitalism and the Hockey Stick…
Bourgeois Equality
It Was a Rapid Revision of Rhetoric
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 52 “And Its Rhetoric Can Change Quickly” As Dr. McCloskey continues on in Part VIII with the argument that the belief in certain ideas created the modern world of wealth, she is now focusing on how quickly ideas can change. Why did the Great…
Bourgeois Equality
The Danger of the Same as It Ever Was
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 50 “On the Whole, However, the Bourgeoisies and their Bettering Projects Have Been Precarious” Dr. McCloskey is wrapping up part VII (!) of her book (still 3 more parts to go) in which she has been making the point that the Great Enrichment that…