A Future for Capitalism: Classical, Neoclassical and Keynesian Perspectives

摘要

The thesis of this book is that capitalism has a bright future if only it is reformed along the lines of what Peter Flaschel and Alfred Greiner (FG) call their "flexicurity" model. "Flexicurity" is a compound of two words, flexibility and security. In FG's model, which takes the form of differential equations, capitalists have flexibility, to hire and fire workers, and workers have security, provided by governments acting as employers of first resort. FG argue for capitalist flexibility as the only way to give free rein to capitalist risk-taking and innovations which, in turn, allegedly cause technological progress through creative destruction. Since most of the benefits of this technological progress accrue to capitalists in the form of profits, FG attempt to show how governments can ameliorate the harsher aspects of workers' lives by organizing a labor market in which all workers are guaranteed meaningful employment at living wages. However, capitalists remain free to entice workers into the private sector by offering them more remunerative employment than that provided by governments. Therefore, government-guaranteed full employment is not supposed to undermine capitalism's fundamental dynamics.