mikerickson reviewed Mission Economy by Mariana Mazzucato
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4 stars
It's interesting to come across a progressive take on the economy that doesn't just come out of the gate screaming, "capitalism=bad, we need socialism now!" and instead argues that the existing system can work towards progressive causes. It was even more interesting to have the past re-framed in a way to show that we have already done what the author is pitching for.
The central argument here is that the government (and while there are mentions of the UK and a few other countries, this is largely an American-centric focus) should be more proactive in engaging with private businesses. Rather than being the lender of last resort (see the '08 bank bailouts), the government should state a measurable and easily defined goal, then spur investments in pursuit of that goal with the idea that multiple different sectors of the market will follow afterwards. The primary example used through the book …
It's interesting to come across a progressive take on the economy that doesn't just come out of the gate screaming, "capitalism=bad, we need socialism now!" and instead argues that the existing system can work towards progressive causes. It was even more interesting to have the past re-framed in a way to show that we have already done what the author is pitching for.
The central argument here is that the government (and while there are mentions of the UK and a few other countries, this is largely an American-centric focus) should be more proactive in engaging with private businesses. Rather than being the lender of last resort (see the '08 bank bailouts), the government should state a measurable and easily defined goal, then spur investments in pursuit of that goal with the idea that multiple different sectors of the market will follow afterwards. The primary example used through the book was the Apollo Program in the '60s, and it's hard to argue against the success of that approach - at least in that one instance, now after the fact and after knowing that it worked.
There's a lot of discussion from point A - how the market works now and why people have gripes about capitalism not working for them - and point B - how a mission-driven macroeconomy where the government takes a leading role would look. I do wish there was more discussion on how we get from point A to point B though. And some of the examples for future progressive missions like, "end hunger" or "the green transition" seem to me to be a little too nebulous to work when you get bogged down in definitions. Whereas the staple example of the Apollo Program had a mission of: get a man on the moon and return him to Earth alive. That kind of goal has a much more clean-cut answer when we ask ourselves, "did we accomplish what we set out to do?"
It may not have laid out an overall strategy as much as I'd have liked, but it did stimulate me into thinking about what a modern-day equivalent of a new Apollo Program that tackles a problem that was previously thought to be impossible might look like.