Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, Art Carden, Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make you Rich. How the Bourgeois Deal Enriched the World, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2020, 227 Seiten.
Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, Art Carden, Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make you Rich. How the Bourgeois Deal Enriched the World, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2020, 227 Seiten.
One day, in the 1890s, a socialist came into the office of the super-rich steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie and demanded that the rich distribute their wealth to the world’s poor. Carnegie then asked his assistant to estimate his current net worth and then divide it by the number of people in the world. The assistant returned shortly afterwards with the numbers and Carnegie told him, “Give this gentleman sixteen cents. That’s his share of the wealth. ”
We do not know whether this really happened. This is one of several beautiful anecdotes that make this scientific book so entertaining. Another: In the 1930s, an old friend came to the comedian Groucho Marx and said: “Groucho, I desperately need a job. You have contacts. ”The friend was a communist, and from the communist point of view all employment was exploitation. Groucho Marx therefore answered: “Harry, I can’t. You’re my dear Communist friend. I don’t want to ‘exploit’ you. ”
The book is seasoned with such anecdotes, but it is about a serious question: How did prosperity come into the world? After only a few changes in the standard of living had changed in the static societies over thousands of years, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Century capitalism, which led to an almost dramatic improvement in living conditions for the people. However, the authors avoid the word “capitalism”, which they consider a polemical expression of left-wing thinkers. You speak of “Liberalism” and “Innovism” – these terms are more appropriate.
Slavery and colonialism are not the roots of capitalism
I will nevertheless use the word “capitalism” here, because the essence of this book is how capitalism came about. The authors examine numerous common explanations but find none of them convincing. Private property and the rule of law, for example, existed before, which is why these are necessary but not sufficient conditions. The situation is similar with the development of the sciences, which are very important, but which were more a consequence than a cause of the economic changes: “High science was more a result of economic growth than a cause.” As a consequence of being the cause of technological change.
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