In a recent interview, James Galbraith said this.
[They are] not going to escape the consequences of this. […] it’s a choice that [they] can, and I’m sure, will make. But what is necessary is to state clearly what the choice actually is.
In this particular conversation, he was discussing Germany and the Eurozone and the need for the Germans to define the Eurozone problem and devise and pursue solutions accordingly.
Of course, this notion of defining problems and deriving corresponding solutions is a key element of what we might call rational decision making. It’s about cause and effect. It’s the scientific method. It’s what’s at the core of the age of reason, of the mode of thought bestowed upon us by the enlightenment.
This way of thinking is why we can build skyscrapers and bridges that don’t fall down. It’s why we can send spacecraft to the outer fringes of the solar system. It’s why I can write this from the comfort of my home and you can read it from the comfort of yours.
Yet here is James Galbraith, compelled to lay out this fundamental point as if the decision makers haven’t recognized it.
This, in my opinion, will be the main characteristic of our era when historians of the future look back. It transcends Germany, transcends the Eurozone and transcends the challenges of global capitalism. All our official institutions, the structures that govern our social, economic and political systems, are guided not by the need to identify, define and solve problems but rather by the need to generate money and profits for those at the helm and the private organizations around them.
Of course, the policy conversation is framed in other terms, using a reassuring vocabulary that softens and masks this harsh reality. Nevertheless, when you look at the details of the real machinery that operates behind this thin veneer, when you read the fine print, when you peel back the facade, it’s clear that objective problem solving is nowhere to be found. The only driving forces in our institutions today are power and profit.
This is why James Galbraith had to make the point he did. And it is why his words will fall on deaf ears.