Paul Musgrave over at In the Agora offers an interesting critique of Bill Gates's recent speech at the World Economic Forum. Gates's heralded Chinas as having a "brand new form of capitalism." Musgrave, in response, writes:
Similarly, Gates's description of China, and in particular his admiration for the brainy, reflective scholar-administrators of China (I really do not understand his thinking on this point), is reminiscent of previous claims of capitalism's overthrow. Always the predictions are tiresomely repetitive. Either it is the sudden scarcity or surplus of some material deemed crucial to the economy that threatens the system; the venality or saintliness of politicians or business leaders or both is often a contributing factor. Sometimes capitalism's demise leads to devastation and poverty, other times it is the first step on the way to that long-promised, long-delayed worker's utopia.
This kind of writing is just one of the many reasons In the Agora is becoming one of my daily "must-reads."
For an a summary of attitude toward China at WEF, read here.
Matthew Lee Anderson
Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.
