Economic and Political Thoughts of Key Economists

Paper Summary:

This paper summarizes the economic and political thought of key economists and classifies them according to the level of government control on the economy. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who believed in the public ownership of productive property, are the advocates of strong, centralized government control. At the other end, Adam Smith, Joseph Schumpeter, Ludwig von Mises and Milton Friedman all espoused laissez faire economics. The middle ground is the fiscal policy of John Maynard Keynes. The second part of this paper discusses why the Keynesian model is both informed by and compatible with Christian principles. In the third part the writer recommends against increasing government regulations on the United States economy in the face of technology such as Napster and cloning. Instead, he argues that a careful application of Keynesian programs would ensure that the Unites States economy remains healthy and competitive.

From the Paper:

"The fact that capitalism continues to flourish, despite the predictions of Marx and Schumpeter, are testament to this economic system's primacy. Though they had different reasons for sounding capitalism's death knell, Marx and Schumpeter made a common mistake by underestimating how much technology revives capitalism. Marxist scholars such as Lenin later showed how capitalism has involved into imperialism, given that technology allows capitalists to extend their private ownership beyond the nation-state. Schumpeter, on the other hand, did not anticipate how these technology such as the internet have given rise to a new kind of "daring entrepreneur," who have in turn created new industries and opened new markets."

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