dispatches from the new world of work

What Was Buckley Really Doing There?

The front page of the June 1 Boston Globe had this headline: "Hundreds Gather to Memorialize Galbraith." (That's the late Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith.) The accompanying photo prominently features arch conservative William F. Buckley Jr. I must admit that I wondered whether Mr Buckley was there to "memorialize" Galbraith ... or to make sure he was dead.

How horrid of me. But you know the zeal of us "born agains." I was a staunch Galbraith fan in the sixties—I reluctantly admit that JKG's New Industrial State was to me what Ayn Rand's Fountainhead apparently was to Alan Greenspan. I now think that Galbraith got absolutely everything dead wrong—and was even a dangerous man, especially because he wrote so well. To this point the historian Robert Conquest, called "the greatest living historian" by one of his prominent peers, muses about how one might respond to a Galbraithian tome: "'This is a beautifully printed and finely bound railway timetable'—but, unfortunately, its train times are wrong." (Robert Conquest, The Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History.)

In summary: Galbraith thought entrepreneurship was passé-DOA. (Ironic that on the occasion of his memorial service the combined net worth of Google's two young founders more or less exceeded the value of the Harvard endowment, 370 years in the making.) Galbraith insisted that the U.S. and Soviet industrial systems were rapidly converging; according to him, we had both perfected (more or less his word) "technocratic management," and the elitist technocrat class would noiselessly run giant, built-to-last-forever enterprises ... enabling the common citizenry to invest in and spend enormous sums on "social goods."

What a fool. (And what a fool I was to be fooled—prior to my arrival in young Silicon Valley in 1970. To be perfectly honest, it took me until about '80 to get the entrepreneurial religion—after all, for most of that time I was at McKinsey, home to worshipers of huge enterprise, who believed in the perfectibility of such enterprises.)

Tom Peters posted this on 06/05/06.

Comments

Ahhh ... the radical extreme lib of Galbraith /Kennedy / Kerry-Heinz / Hillary / Dean - I'd think the free enterprise moderation of Buckley must be exalted before the pols turn USA into Mexicali Lite Socialism.

55% inheritance tax - mass crippler of small / to large business - amazing - going to 15% - any predictions? Even the lib Seattle Times as pro 15% [Sunday].

Posted by Sean at June 5, 2006 9:32 AM

Buckley and Galbraith were friends and intellectual adversaries. See this article WFB wrote upon Galbraith's death: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/column/wfbuckley/2006/05/02/196026.html

Posted by Aaron Bailey at June 5, 2006 9:39 AM

Brilliant reference-link, Aaron. Thanks!

Posted by tom peters at June 5, 2006 1:34 PM

Buckley and Galbraith were good friends. Buckley had JKG on his Firing Line show many times, and always treated him with dignity and friendly wit. Buckley has never been threatened in the slightest by opposing opinions, and does not take a good friend's economic ignorance personally.

Posted by steve chandler at June 5, 2006 8:38 PM

Tom: You knew Buckley and Galbraith were close friends, right?

Thank God you got religion.

I'd prefer Atlas Shrugged to Foutainhead, but whatever . . . economic freeedom is good. Let's hope we get that 15%.

Posted by S. Anthony Iannarino at June 6, 2006 9:18 PM

Couldn't agree more, Sean. :)

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of faith in the inheritance tax being permanently nixed. 15%?! I wish. Your thoughts?

Personally, I'm anticipating the max taxation on my kids (47% max) and planning for it with how much my wife and I intend to leave our boys. If it drops, our boys will be in even better shape.

Posted by tango5 at June 9, 2006 8:28 AM