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Don't blame Wall Street alone for this crisis: We all bought into it
By Wang Yong |
June 26, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE ongoing global financial and economic crisis cannot be blamed simply on one drunken Wall Street.
Wall Street was drunk indeed, drunk on power, risk and greed, and still is reeling in the middle of the crisis, but who got Wall Street drunk?
It was not a few economists, financial engineers, bankers or investors, many of whom were either speculative or naive in their fiddling with leveraged subprime mortgage loans.
It was a kind of culture that knew no end in seeking material pleasure and that deemed capitalism to be a social order within which people swim like fish live in water.
"The ongoing financial crisis is not just a financial crisis, it's a crisis of culture, of values, of philosophy," wrote Yu Wujin, professor of philosophy at Fudan University, in an article titled "A Reflection on Cultural Illness Behind the Financial Crisis," published in Wen Hui Bao, a Shanghai-based newspaper, on Tuesday.
He couldn't be closer to truth. He said it was wrong to look at the crisis from a distance and as a separate onlooker. Everyone, he said, is part of the crisis. "Why did people praise America's financial policies (that encourage subprime loans, overdrafts, and so on) before the financial crisis broke out?" he asked.
A good question. His answer: "These policies greatly stimulated and boosted people's latent desire to consume."
And behind those policies was a philosophical crisis marked by craving for comfort, status, a worship of the senses, and nihilism, he explained.
The skeleton of those desires was fleshed out in a plethora of commercial ads, exposing us to "virtual reality" that valued nothing but consumption or the power to consume.
While professor Yu had a keen eye for the root cause of the current crisis, he left two questions unanswered: Is China's current consumption binge borrowed from Wall Street or home grown? Can a market economy be ethical and promote anything beyond material progress?
China certainly has borrowed a lot from the American way of living, for example, overdraft spending and obsession with gas-guzzlers, in a era of globalization. But Chinese people could have resisted those temptations if they had held on to traditional Chinese value that put spiritual enlightenment before material "progress."
I do not believe in economic determinism. I don't believe that men are no more than humble animals in a material environment. There're heroes and traitors on the same battle field - that fact speaks volumes against economic determinism.
China has embraced a market economy since the late 1970s, but it doesn't mean that commercial ads - 99.9 percent exaggerating the benefits of what they represent - should dominate TV prime time slots.
It doesn't mean that prostitutes in the guise of "beauty saloon" attendants should ply their trade in downtown areas where innocent children must pass. It doesn't mean that all Chinese should strive to drive a car and abandon the bicycle.
In this sense, Wall Street or the Detroit Big Three are not to blame. We have only ourselves to blame. Which leads to the second question: Can a market economy be ethical?
Yes, I would say. Harvard MBA graduates are required to take an oath to be ethical. That doesn't work, an oath doesn't bind. There's a Chinese saying: It takes 10 years to grow a tree, but 100 years to cultivate a good character.
When I bought a guqin (a Chinese zither) last week to hone my knowledge about Chinese culture and improve my character, my young friends in Beijing and Shanghai gave a chorus of "wow" at its price.
Some of them had bought LV bags and cars that were far more expensive, but no one frowned upon those prices. To them, living with a LV bag and a car is like a fish living in water - it's so natural.
In a way, they are victims of a flawed education philosophy, which can be corrected.
Wall Street was drunk indeed, drunk on power, risk and greed, and still is reeling in the middle of the crisis, but who got Wall Street drunk?
It was not a few economists, financial engineers, bankers or investors, many of whom were either speculative or naive in their fiddling with leveraged subprime mortgage loans.
It was a kind of culture that knew no end in seeking material pleasure and that deemed capitalism to be a social order within which people swim like fish live in water.
"The ongoing financial crisis is not just a financial crisis, it's a crisis of culture, of values, of philosophy," wrote Yu Wujin, professor of philosophy at Fudan University, in an article titled "A Reflection on Cultural Illness Behind the Financial Crisis," published in Wen Hui Bao, a Shanghai-based newspaper, on Tuesday.
He couldn't be closer to truth. He said it was wrong to look at the crisis from a distance and as a separate onlooker. Everyone, he said, is part of the crisis. "Why did people praise America's financial policies (that encourage subprime loans, overdrafts, and so on) before the financial crisis broke out?" he asked.
A good question. His answer: "These policies greatly stimulated and boosted people's latent desire to consume."
And behind those policies was a philosophical crisis marked by craving for comfort, status, a worship of the senses, and nihilism, he explained.
The skeleton of those desires was fleshed out in a plethora of commercial ads, exposing us to "virtual reality" that valued nothing but consumption or the power to consume.
While professor Yu had a keen eye for the root cause of the current crisis, he left two questions unanswered: Is China's current consumption binge borrowed from Wall Street or home grown? Can a market economy be ethical and promote anything beyond material progress?
China certainly has borrowed a lot from the American way of living, for example, overdraft spending and obsession with gas-guzzlers, in a era of globalization. But Chinese people could have resisted those temptations if they had held on to traditional Chinese value that put spiritual enlightenment before material "progress."
I do not believe in economic determinism. I don't believe that men are no more than humble animals in a material environment. There're heroes and traitors on the same battle field - that fact speaks volumes against economic determinism.
China has embraced a market economy since the late 1970s, but it doesn't mean that commercial ads - 99.9 percent exaggerating the benefits of what they represent - should dominate TV prime time slots.
It doesn't mean that prostitutes in the guise of "beauty saloon" attendants should ply their trade in downtown areas where innocent children must pass. It doesn't mean that all Chinese should strive to drive a car and abandon the bicycle.
In this sense, Wall Street or the Detroit Big Three are not to blame. We have only ourselves to blame. Which leads to the second question: Can a market economy be ethical?
Yes, I would say. Harvard MBA graduates are required to take an oath to be ethical. That doesn't work, an oath doesn't bind. There's a Chinese saying: It takes 10 years to grow a tree, but 100 years to cultivate a good character.
When I bought a guqin (a Chinese zither) last week to hone my knowledge about Chinese culture and improve my character, my young friends in Beijing and Shanghai gave a chorus of "wow" at its price.
Some of them had bought LV bags and cars that were far more expensive, but no one frowned upon those prices. To them, living with a LV bag and a car is like a fish living in water - it's so natural.
In a way, they are victims of a flawed education philosophy, which can be corrected.
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