Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 21 Issue 4

Volume XXI Issue IV Version I 13 ( E ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2021 © 2021 Global Journals Transforming Financialization and Inequality in a Post-Covid World esteem.” There is a need to restore the “dignity of work.” He argues that our meritocratic society “…has a dark side. The more we view ourselves as self-made and self-sufficient, the less likely we are to care for the fate of those less fortunate than ourselves. If my success is my own doing, their failure must be their fault.” This divisiveness has undermined “human flourishing” and is “corrosive of the common good.” As relates to the dignity of work, Sandel states that “…it is a mistake to assume that the market value of this or that job is the measure of its contribution to the common good. But over the last several decades, the idea that the money we make reflects the value of our social contribution has become deeply embedded. It echoes throughout the public culture.” I have often pondered that thought in terms of why it is that the average employee at Goldman Sachs makes X times the income that is earned by the average teacher. Sandel quotes a statement from Martin Luther King: “One day our society will come to respect the sanitation workers if it is to survive, for the person who picks up the garbage is in the final analysis as significant as the physician, for if he doesn’t do his job, diseases are rampant. All labor has dignity.” It is important to put a human face on current challenges and not to fall into the trap of economistic solutions. Pragmatism and non-ideological solutions are needed that emerge from civil society and make sense to people. Utopian approaches that once may have appealed, whether socialism, communism, neoliberalism, capitalism, etc. no longer (if they ever did) provide useful guidance. A meritocracy may seem a fair arrangement to many; it rewards people for their contributions, except that as I read Sandel, it becomes quite apparent that it is, indeed, “corrosive of the common good.” We are where we are for a reason, but that does not mean we need to continue on our current path. In fact, as one writer stated, “Neoliberalism, like Communism, is the God that failed” It is worth pondering, as Marriner Eccles did in a speech, “what is an economy for?” Fortunately, no economy is immutable; as social systems, they evolve. For better or worse, all of us must take the lead in this process. V. C onclusion An optimist will argue that challenges generate opportunities. Perhaps the pandemic will open this process to further scrutiny. In the throes of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president. As Thomas Frank states: “…the talented people surrounding Franklin Roosevelt stood very definitely outside the era’s main academic currents. Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt’s closest confidant, was a social worker from Iowa. Robert Jackson, the U.S. Attorney General whom Roosevelt appointed to the Supreme Court, was a lawyer who had no law degree. Jesse Jones, who ran Roosevelt’s bailout program, was a businessman from Texas with no qualms about putting the nation’s most prominent financial institutions into receivership. Marriner Eccles, the visionary who Roosevelt appointed to run the Federal Reserve, was a small-town banker from Utah with no advanced degree…..” Clement Attlee became prime minister of the UK in 1945. Seven of his Cabinet ministers had spent time working in the coal mines. The lack of credentials for these leaders did not dissuade them from delivering bold actions. Both leaders and their advisors laid the foundations for an economic framework that created decades of robust postwar performance accompanied by declining inequality and a stable financial system. Needless to say, there were numerous challenges, including virulent racism, gender discrimination, imperial adventurism, etc., but the course correction initiated then perhaps provides the best hope for today. We clearly live in a world of second-best solutions. As the adage goes, “If I were you, I would not start from here.” Agreed, but we must operate in the real world. The destruction of our faith in the ability of government to deliver based on the nightmarish neoliberal dream of privatization, globalization, and deregulation has created the polarization that persists today. Extreme individualism has undermined our faith in collective action that can offer prosperity and allow humanity to flourish. As Eccles noted in the throes of the Great Depression, “we have got all of the wealth and resources we ever had, and we do not have the sense, the financial and political leadership to know how to use them.” A similar challenge awaits humanity today. The economy has operated best during the past century when it combines government and markets. It is clear that the neoliberal policies have “failed the marketplace test.” In a “back to the future moment”, it is time to recognize that the preferable framework is one that creates a real-world, interactive bridge between the private sector and government (which served from 1945 until the 1970s as both a bridge and as a countervailing check on capital). The collaboration that somehow evolved during the Great Depression and World War II offer historical evidence of what governments and markets can achieve when they work together to solve problems. Given the challenges ahead, we could do far worse than a “back to the future” moment. Better that we get there sooner than later! B ibliography 1. Balder, John M. (2020). “Reversing Financialization and Restoring Government,” Challenge, Taylor Francis Group, 2020. 2. Balder, John M. (2018). “Financialization and Rising Income Inequality: Connecting the Dots,” Challenge, Taylor Francis Group, August 2, 2018.