Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Until recently I thought that the wealthier classes would favor dictatorship and the poor and lower-middle class would favor democracy, but I am considering abandoning that position. This is the new position I am considering.


A ruler with the ability to dispense large sums of money, but can only do so with the consent of the voters, may be more sensitive to the desires of the campaign contributors (most of whom are relatively wealthy) than the lower income citizens. The democratic ruler is thus tethered to the wealthy, whereas in a dictatorship, the wealthy are tethered to the ruler, allowing the dictatorship to respond to those who cannot fund campaigns—something he could not before do.  This is why the poor often desire autocrats, while the wealthier classes espouse the benefits of democracy.


From where did this new position arise? Various instances. In 23 B.C., during severe food shortages Roman citizens pleaded with Augustus to "seize absolute power openly and unambiguously."


"The panic-stricken and angry mob did not trust old-style republican politicians to govern effectively and called for Augustus to be appointed dictator. It besieged the Senate House and threatened to burn it down with the senators inside if they did not vote for the appointment."
—Everitt, Anthony.  Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor.  Chapter 15.  Page 194 of paperback.  2007.  Random House.


After the Russian Tsar abdicated in 1917, Russia began installing a modern democracy, mimicking both American and British democratic systems.  Eventually, though, the large class of peasants changed their politics and helped install a man named Vladimir Lenin, who was openly calling for a Dictatorship of the Proletariat.


Moreover, throughout most of Russian history from Peter the Great to the last Tsar, the Russian peasant loved their Tsar, though they hated the nobles to whose land they were tied.  They might rather have a monarchy than a democracy controlled by the nobility.


Americans who espouse giving greater consideration to the working class and poor tend to favor government coercion over voluntary consent.  I'm thinking here of minimum wage and union supporters, and the very poor on welfare and food stamps.


I'm sure there are some examples to the contrary I have not found.  It is just an idea, one that five years ago I would have considered absurd—I no longer do.

My favorite capitalism quote

Capitalism can make you well off. And it also leaves you free to be as unhappy as you choose. To ask any more would be asking too much.
—The Economist Magazine 

Quitting Economics

I’ve never had any shame in quitting.  I’ve quit economic theory, I’ve quit macroeconomics—I’ve pretty much quit everything that I’m bad at....If I were to say one of the single best explanations for how I managed to succeed against all odds in the field of economics: it was by being a quitter.  Ever since the beginning, my mantra has been: fail quickly.  If I started with 100 ideas, I’m luck if two or three of those ideas will ever turn into academic papers.  One of my great skills as an economist has been to recognize the need to fail quickly and the willingness to jettison a project as soon as I realize its likely to fail.
—Steven Levitt in Freakonomics Podcast.  Episode: the upside of quitting.  September 29, 2011.

I had a moment as a Ph.D candidate when I mentally went on strike. My love for economics is deep and sincere, but economics at the grad level saps all the power and wonder away. I took an economic development course, believing that this course would not entail the act of modeling for the sake of modeling (which was all I had done for 1.5 years). Of the many things I envisioned we would study, among them were cultural variability and its implications for savings and investment; the impacts of political institutions as they evolve in history; an empirical examination of how the poor live, work, and interact with one another; and how clashes between different social classes inhibits social harmony.

Instead, we spent all semester learning how to modify a utility function to account for the fact that many peasants consume what they produce, and can store the good—I am exaggerating, but not much.

What kept me going was that once I had my Ph.D I could return to the undergraduate level, where I believe real economics thrives. Now, quitting is not a consideration.

Quote about the essence of economics

There is no grand narrative, only little stories. But the need for grand narrative is so firmly ingrained in human thinking that the fruitless search for it will never end. This book is dedicated to those for whom a partial understanding of complex reality is better than the reassurance of false universal explanations.
—John Kay, last remark in Culture and Prosperity