The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers

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They still didn’t get a share of the profits. They just got paid a better wage, usually whether or not the Caterpillarist generated a profit. So the risk-taking Caterpillarist could go down the gurgler, while the Workers still got paid (although they might lose their jobs). Heilbroner interestingly traces out the development of profit and its mechanisms, both within societies and in economic theories. He also examines how accurately each of these theories described the actual material conditions of the world they were developed in, although he does seem partial in his analysis. So I’m going to put them on two teams, one team consisting only of Karl Marx, and the other captained by Adam Smith, but including everybody else. In the market system, or market economy, economic decisions are decentralized: Each member of the labor force chooses which job to follow; each household selects what to buy with its income; and each business decides what to produce, what production methods to use, and where to sell the resulting product. Modern examples exist in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, and Great Britain. This capitalism, which is also called a free or private enterprise system, is named for its use of capital, or investment funds.

The purpose, then, of a Revolution is to end the disequilibrium and terminate the misappropriation of the fruit of the Workers’ labor. What seems to be missing is a greater role for Worker Profit Sharing, whereby the Workers share in the surplus value that they have created within the framework of a joint venture. Does capitalism, or the market system, actually operate in this way? It did during Smith's time, for the business world was a world of atomistic, or elemental, competition. Yet, there was evidence that a large number of people did not profit from the system. Still, even though more than an eighth of England's population in 1720 was poor, Smith insisted that society could not flourish if "the greater part of the numbers are poor and miserable." In his radical view, society was definitely improving. By comparison, the capitalistic world of today differs greatly with its giant corporations and massive labor unions. However, the twin laws of self-interest and competition still form the basis of the market system. The Worldly Philosophers not only enables us to see more deeply into our history but helps us better understand our own times. In this seventh edition, Robert L. Heilbroner provides a new theme that connects thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. The theme is the common focus of their highly varied ideas—namely, the search to understand how a capitalist society works. It is a focus never more needed than in this age of confusing economic headlines. Not only did he believe a Revolution would happen, he believed that it was dictated by the concept of Dialectical Materialism. It was inevitable, and the duty of Communists around the world was to facilitate the Revolution.

Perhaps, this passive state of affairs is a product of Social Democratic governments that intervene in Caterpillarism. All good sports require a ball (or something a bit like a ball). [Sorry, I refuse to accept that anything that involves peddling or paddling is a sport.]

The introduction and first chapter give an overview of the history of the universe down to the eighteenth century from an economic view point. I think it obscures matters and makes it sound more forbidding and complex than it is, or was. there after coming chapters on individuals or sets of persons as follows plus a conclusion.Caterpillarism really only started [ages ago/ in the 1760’s/ in 1848/ before the war (but which war?)/ last century/ in Year 8 at High School] and it is still changing.