Volume 1: A sound on Wall Street, Xinxiang City is busy copying books Chapter 47 Vice Principal
Subtitle of this chapter: Libertarians must oppose antitrust!
When Master Yuan was half asleep, he found that there was another person beside him. He opened his sleepy eyes and was shocked. He knew this guy!
The middle-aged man sitting next to him had a serious expression and a dignified look, with a high forehead, a pointed nose, and a mustache. Even though he was sitting there without saying a word, he looked very imposing.
The middle-aged man glanced at Yuan Yan indifferently, with a hint of reproach on his face, and it seemed that he was very dissatisfied with this student sleeping in class.
Our Master Yuan thought it was not good, but he did not know whether to explain or apologize. However, he knew that if he left a bad impression on this guy, his application for a doctorate would be in jeopardy. Because this guy was James B. Conant, the vice president of NYU and vice chairman of the Faculty Senate. This vice president was also a scholar, but he was more inclined to education..
In fact, the vice president is not important, what is important is his position as the vice chairman of the Faculty Senate. Although American private universities like NYU are not purely managed by academic guilds like European universities, the Faculty Senate has a very high status. It can not only decide the promotion and even dismissal of teachers or the granting of tenure to professors, but also affect the evaluation of students' degrees.
At this moment, he heard Professor Chandra on the stage raise his voice and ask: "Who else wants to express their opinions?"
Our Master Yuan was quick-witted and stood up, shouting, "Professor, I have something to say!"
"Uh...Mr. Yuan." No matter what, this Teutonic Knight is still very professional. Even if he looks down on the Chinese, he will not stop Chinese students from speaking. Moreover, after this period of contact, he feels that Student Yuan still has some potential.
In fact, if it weren't for the damn Master Ball system, our classmate Yuan would have more than enough material to flood Stern College... and even the entire economics community. It's impossible for him to build a New York School from one person and let NYU dominate economics for decades to come.
"Well, go ahead."
Unfortunately, Professor Chandler knew that he had information, but the other students didn't. What insights could a Chinese student who barely knew anyone have, especially insights about opium? So although the students in the class couldn't talk loudly due to the requirements of class notes, they all showed expressions of disapproval , and some even whispered to each other and held a small meeting.
Yuan Yanshu was not moved at all. He straightened his clothes, coughed lightly and said, "What the students said just now is very inspiring to me ..."
I was so inspired that I fell asleep.
“I am especially moved and admired by Mr. Louis Baker’s support for the nationalization of the mining industry from a humanitarian perspective. This is the position that a true gentleman should take. Although we are just NYU students, as future economic workers , everyone here, including myself, has a moral responsibility to the people!”
Anyway, I heard what Brother Baker said, and...what if there is a chance to curry favor with him?
When he said this, George F. Baker's grandson naturally smiled, and other students who supported the nationalization of the mining industry began to nod their heads. Even the vice president next to him relaxed his frown and his expression softened.
Were the American people in the 1920s still easy to fool? They were nothing like the American elites of later generations, who talked about pluralism but only thought about business, becoming more and more like their English cousins.
"But..." Our Master Yuan raised his voice again and said "but", then paused and gathered all his energy into his eyes, scanning the faces of everyone present with his bright eyes, which took a full two minutes...
Needless to say, this trick was learned from the greatest orator of all time, Moustache.
The mustache man's trick was naturally very effective. Everyone in the class was a little overwhelmed at first, then felt puzzled, and finally became impatient. And at this moment, with a "boom", our Master Yuan finally fired!
"But when we see a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, the right thing to do is to stay aside and quietly admire this touching miracle of life, rather than stepping forward to break the cocoon and help the butterfly skip this difficult step. Otherwise, the most likely result is that this beautiful creature created by God can only struggle in the mud and eventually become food for ants, spiders and wasps."
While everyone was thinking about what this poetic phrase, “Pulling up the seedlings to help them grow”, meant, Yuan Yan suddenly sped up her speech and said:
"As students of political economy, we all know that monopolies are harmful. But more harmful than monopolies that form naturally in the free market are monopolies caused by compulsory intervention by the state. The latter are a hundred times worse than the former! No, they are a thousand times worse!! No, they are ten thousand times worse!!!"
Nationalization...well, the monopoly caused by nationalization is the root of all evil.
"As we all know, there is indeed a trend towards large-scale factories in the free market, but this is only the result of the division of labor. Large enterprises can meet the needs of a wider market. For similar reasons, there will also be a trend towards the concentration of enterprises. But please don't forget that even successful investments are essentially still a risky business, and there is always the possibility of losing all your money. Therefore, whether it is individual investors, boards of directors composed of corporate shareholders, or investment funds directly managed by banks, they will take a cautious attitude to avoid losses in their investments. But I would like to ask everyone present, who can guarantee that state-owned enterprises will be so cautious?"
In this regard, Master Yuan is right. The biggest problem with nationalization is not the bureaucratization of corporate management groups. In fact, all large private, joint-stock or state-owned enterprises have this problem. For large enterprises, or more precisely, for an organizational system of a certain scale, organizational bureaucratization is a necessary evil.
Max Weber once said that the bureaucratization of organizations is actually the result of the rationalization of human life..
Our Master Yuan said earnestly: "On the surface, the ideal of a nationalist society is no different from that of a capitalist society. Nationalism does not intend to overthrow the traditional legal order and formally transform all productive private property into public property. But in fact, once this start is made, all enterprises will slowly be taken over by the government. Every enterprise becomes an office and every position is a civil servant. The government determines prices, decides what , decides how to produce, and decides how much to produce..."
"Then we will see an environment where there is no speculation, no 'extra' profits, no losses, and no innovation outside of government regulations. The government guides and supervises everything!"
"My fellow students, isn't it scary to see a government composed of professional bureaucrats directing and supervising everything?"
In fact, after saying so much, to sum up, the key problem of state-owned enterprises lies in the decision-making mechanism, that is, laymen leading professionals.
What Yuan Yanshu talked about was the discussion on monopoly theory and nationalization in his book "Socialism".
