Knowledge and Power: George Gilder - 2013

Aug 22, 2016·Roy Sebag

In Knowledge and Power, Gilder argues that it’s time to create a new philosophy for consumer spending in America. Published in 2013, this book enhances our view of capitalism with an all-new theory that is not at all conventional. George Gilder discusses how we can generate more wealth and growth by taking a different approach to capitalism called “information theory”. Gilder proposes that entrepreneurs and the government must work together to make the economy prosper. The entrepreneurs hold the knowledge and the government hold the power.

Gilder uses eloquent and easy to read language to aid us in understanding the two different entities and how they work as a whole.

"The key issue in economics is not aligning incentives with some putative public good but aligning knowledge with power. Business investments have both a financial and an epistemic yield. Capitalism catalytically joins the two. Capitalist economies grow because they award wealth to its creators, who have already proved that they can increase it. Their tests yield knowledge because they are falsifiable; they can be exposed as wrong. Businesses are subject to failure.”

Gilder explains that immense power can destroy capitalism, and it must be handled with care. For us to completely understand our need for a productive economy, we must look at other areas of thought. Gilder gives us another realm of thought in his book, Knowledge and Power.