Wild Guess Chase

Anyone who spends any time observing the erratic workings of capitalism will realise that it almost never lives up to the claims made for it. It is a social system supported by mythology. One myth – that it provides for everyone – is easy to debunk. You only have to look at the Third World, or even the poor sections of the West. Another – that its competitive motor always produces the best products – is also easy to debunk. Here one may point to the market success of the VHS video system over the superior Betamax, or again that of IBM/Intel computer chips over the vastly superior Apple/Risc chips.

But the biggest myth – that which keeps people voting for political parties to run capitalism – is that it is indeed possible to "run" capitalism. With no steering wheel, no brakes and no happy end in sight, capitalism is nevertheless not short of prospective "drivers" who will do and say anything for a chance to sit up front with the big hat on. Governments of the world govern by the myth of control. They persuade us that they can control market forces, but only until the next crisis, whereupon they blame market forces or foreigners, or both.

Evidence for the chaotic nature of capitalism is not scarce. Since the days of Adam Smith in the 18th century, economists have been trying in vain to find the right combination of knobs, levers, sliders, switches and buttons with which to control the monster reactor of the money and market system. Each would-be government has to claim that it has everything finally figured out, so that you will vote for them. If they admitted that they can't control capitalism, nobody would bother electing these self-styled "market managers" at all.

The "experts" frankly don't know. They can't predict what the market will do. And they can't control it anyway. But itt is on this basis that they are now suggesting a slumpless economy. In short, when nothing is predictable then anything is possible.

The most enduring if not endearing thing about capitalism and the market is that its supporters, fully recognising what has unfailingly happened in the past, always insist that this time it will be different. Allow us therefore our own little prediction, and you can hold us to it: No, it bloody well won't!

PJS