This is an excerpt from an interview with Nassim Nicholas Taleb the author of Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan
I am not a raging fan of Taleb but this is very well put.
Are you saying that capitalism is good, but that 21st-century capitalism has gone too far?
What we do today has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism. It is a crony type of system that transfers money to the coffers of bureaucrats. The largest “fragiliser” of society is a lack of skin in the game. If you are mayor of a small town, you are penalised for your mistakes because you are made accountable when you go to church. But we are witnessing the rise of a new class of inverse heroes – bureaucrats, bankers, and academics with too much power. They game the system while citizens pay the price. I want the entrepreneur to be respected, not the CEO of a company who has all the upsides and none of the downsides.
More at New Scientist – subscription required. But if you dont have a subscription to New Scientist you are just not serious about the world around you.
