3 ms·
Exactly. It's a complete mischaracterization to call every stock market boom and bust cycle a result of "greed," and yet people refuse to stop doing so. I guess
by logicx24 7y ago
Exactly. It's a complete mischaracterization to call every stock market boom and bust cycle a result of "greed," and yet people refuse to stop doing so. I guess it creates a sense of moral outrage, and makes readers feel righteously justified.
- dmos62 7y agoI was having trouble putting this into words, but now after having a think, I liked when Goldgar got into the historical context of the crisis. To heavily paraphrase, in that stratified society, speculation appeared to be a way to climb the social ladder. The article's author, the one quoting Goldgar, obviously didn't interpret it this way. I'm not saying Goldgar sees the tulip bubble that way, or that it's a historically accurate narrative, but it's miles better than saying it was caused by "fools and greed", which is similar to saying that something was caused by evil. I guess my principal point is that stupidity, greed and evil are fundamentally socioeconomic symptoms, in that they are not explanations of themselves.