“What are your qualifications to expound on economics and ethics, sir?”
Fair question. I am not an expert on anything. I’m the kind of person who takes “jack-of-all-trades, master of none” as a compliment. My three academic degrees go no farther than an MA, two of which are in vague interdisciplinary studies (one degree is in mathematics, just in case that raises my credibility). As far as professional experience goes, you could describe me as a consultant, which is to say very little indeed. I’ve designed computer games and written interactive textbooks about business statistics, finance, and leadership. I have traveled the world teaching corporate managers what shareholder value means and how to create it. Wearing a salesman’s hat, I have cold-called my way into a sufficiently lucrative franchise business, lucrative enough to generate savings. And yes, I have invested those savings capitalistically, earning money simply by having it in the first place.
None of this qualifies me to write the definitive treatise on economics and ethics. But it definitely qualifies me to be in that treatise’s audience. I am passionately interested, reasonably well-read, and thoroughly immersed in the world of business, where capitalism’s rubber meets the road. And by God, if I can’t find a satisfying answers I’ll write them myself.
The Ruminathans 