"Decent business" (fatsoenlijk zaken doen) would be one way of translating the title of Hans Küng's book. But the German word anständig is hard to translate in either English or Dutch. Anständig also has a connotation of "all right" (tegoei in Antwerpian), careful and diligent. The original meaning is even "not too fast", "stay there before you go".The message of the book is not hard to guess: "why the economy needs a moral foundation". The author asks: "Was his (Ludwig Erhard's) conviction so wrong, that people can also be brought to common sense and service to the community through understanding, not only through hard laws? Is really nobody prepared to do anything on a voluntary base, only through brute force (Zwang)?"
While reading the book, other questions came up in my mind. Why do we need a stock exchange if this crazy system is not capable of damping out ridiculous panic reactions? I remember one day the Nikè index plunged because of the news of a new Japanese hostage taken in Iraq. If the system can't block this, it is totally useless and dangerous. Another question that came up: why do we allow speculation without commitment? If the value of a house or a factory increases, only the committed owners, entrepreneurs and employees should benefit from this, not the ones who buy and sell shares at computer speed while they are sleeping. I don't have the final answers yet.
While reading the book, other questions came up in my mind. Why do we need a stock exchange if this crazy system is not capable of damping out ridiculous panic reactions? I remember one day the Nikè index plunged because of the news of a new Japanese hostage taken in Iraq. If the system can't block this, it is totally useless and dangerous. Another question that came up: why do we allow speculation without commitment? If the value of a house or a factory increases, only the committed owners, entrepreneurs and employees should benefit from this, not the ones who buy and sell shares at computer speed while they are sleeping. I don't have the final answers yet.
The book guides the reader to the final chapter which is a manifesto signed by a number of intellectual world leaders. The preamble is as follows: "Die globalisierung des wirtschaftlichen Handelns wird nur dann zum algemeinem und nachhaltigem Wohlstand und Vorteil aller Volker und ihrer Volkswirtschaften führen, wenn sie auf die beständige Kooperationsbereitschaft und werteorientierte Kooperationsfähigkeit aller Beteiligten und Betroffenen bauen kann." In other words, the manifesto is a call on people to include all "stakeholders" in economy.
I refer to my dutch blog: het principe van de goede huisvader in een technocratie as well as to de dictatuur van de economie, written in 2004.
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