The Continuing Age of Uncertainty:
The More Things Change …

Edward J. Dodson

[An article submitted for publication in Land & Liberty, November, 2009. Awaiting publication as of October, 2010]

Some of us will remember the BBC-produced television series The Age of Uncertainty narrated by economics professor John Kenneth Galbraith. In the book that followed, Galbraith commented on the theme:

"The ruling ideas of the are those by which people and governments are guided. Thus they help to shape history itself. What men believe about the power of the market or the dangers of the state has a bearing on the laws they enact or do not enact - on what whey ask of the government or entrust to market forces."

The year was 1977, and the course of history was about to change rather dramatically. The semblance of certainty that emerged out of the creation of post-Second World War institutions was unraveling under the pressures of corporate and financial globalization and the proliferation of what Dwight Eisenhower warned was an entrenched military-industrial complex. As Galbraith observed:

"The large corporation is here to stay. Those who would break it up and confine its operations within national boundaries are at war with history and circumstance. People want large tasks performed - oil recovered from the North Sea, automobiles made by the million to use it. Large tasks require large organizations. That is how it is. …There must be rules; but within the rules there must be freedom to decide. …The one thing worse than a wicked corporation is an incompetent one."

In the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher ushered in the withdrawal of government from rational economic governance. In the United States, Ronald Reagan did his best to follow in Thatcher's footsteps. As these events unfolded, Galbraith commented frequently on the policy changes brought about during the last quarter century of his own life. Although he lived long enough to observe the first phase of the current financial meltdown and general economic crisis, he left no final commentary or policy advice to mitigate and shorten the duration of the downturn. This is not so surprising given his advanced age and the fact that throughout his writing and lecturing career, Galbraith never revealed a real appreciation for the central importance of property markets - or tax policies on property.

This is not to say that Galbraith was completely blind to the connection between poverty and landlessness. In The Age of Uncertainty (p.283), he says that among the "ways in which the equilibrium of poverty can be broken" are to "provide more land" and to "alter land tenure to reward the efforts of the people with what they produce." Absent the political will to implement land reform measures, the default policies become family planning and "the redistribution of people … from the poor countries or communities to the rich." The first has been a dismal failure. The second has resulted in large but alienated and generally unwelcomed minority populations in host countries. Moreover, migration has in very few instances resulted in a rising standard of well-being for those left behind.

If there is any real certainty in the world, it is that the human footprint has become sufficiently heavy to dramatically alter the life-supporting capacity of our planet. Continued exploitation of our ecosystems as currently occurs keeps us on a path of self-destruction. Even with the immediate adoption of systemic reforms consistent with the principles of true liberty and equality of opportunity, we may not have sufficient time for the earth to heal from the damage we have caused. Nature is likely to have its revenge. We live in harms' way, with a great majority of us residing in cities at or near the coast. How will we respond to rising sea levels? How will we protect ourselves from an increasing frequency and intensity of storms, flooding, hurricanes, and tsunamis? We have been warned again and again over the last few decades. And, yet, we continue to expand our population centers already located in the most vulnerable places on earth, too often because of the undue influence of property speculators and the development industry over public policy.

If we have not already run out of time, the time we have left to adopt solutions to these problems is very short, indeed.