I.6 What Is Next?
The economic meltdown, the financial crisis, the government takeover of privately owned enterprise, and the implosion of the virtual economy render the entire politico-economic model of free enterprise and rugged individualism a broken one. There is almost unanimous agreement that a fundamental change to the current politico-economic model is urgently needed. This change appeared in the media in various forms and slogans. One of these slogans was borrowed from Obama’s words, “remaking America,” which was repeated in the front pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, LA Times, and many more127.
This tone has revoked the belief that capitalism in its purest free market form was the ultimate and highest point of historic economic evolution, a belief which climaxed as the Soviet brand of socialism collapsed in 1991. Francis Fukayama, who advocated the notion of free market superiority in his book End of History and the Last Man,33 revoked that belief in 2008 when he wrote, “The Fall of America, Inc.” The article which appeared in the Newsweek edition on October 4, 2008, declared that the current version of capitalism has failed; in Fukayama’s words, “a certain vision of capitalism has collapsed.” A new vision is required.
“A New Form of capitalism Can Remake Broken Country” is the title of another article which appeared in the Independent Daily newspaper on January 22, 2009,127. The article suggests a new evolution of capitalism that could serve as model for broader collaboration between government and private enterprise.
The names that have been suggested for a new form of capitalism show how the image of capitalism has been tarnished in the eyes of the public. One of the publications128 presents the following alternative names for new forms of capitalism: “Bubble Capitalism,” “Ponzi Capitalism,” “Crony Capitalism,” and “Geonomic James Arthur Ray, New York Times best-selling author, wrote “A New Form of Capitalism: Dealing with the Cause Versus the Effect,” which appeared in the HuffPost Social News129. In this article, James Arthur argues that socialism and/or communism cannot be a viable alternative to capitalism because socialism itself has failed. He concludes, saying, “I submit capitalism is the only viable option. Yet a new type of capitalism must be adopted, a type that I call Conscious Capitalism.” Conscious capitalism addressed the moral factor behind the failure of current free market capitalism.