The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind

by Raghuram G. Rajan

Many of us fear that we will not have the incomes for such a fine life, since the machines will be owned by a few, and all income will flow to them. Yet as our excursion through history suggests, social values change. We glorified the victorious warrior, we then turned to praise merchants and bankers, today we place successful entrepreneurs on a pedestal, and we may exalt community workers tomorrow. If the distribution of wealth becomes skewed towards a very few, the few may decide their accumulation of wealth unseemly and find ways to give it back. Society will aid that process by muting its applause for the captains of industry who only accumulate, while increasing it for those who distribute wisely. Indeed, this already seems underway with the Giving Pledge, where billionaires across the world have pledged to give away at least half their wealth.

Our heroes keep changing