Summary
This ESL lesson for C1 English students explores Economics and society. Using a real video as the basis for discussion, students develop reading and listening comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar skills across a 90-minute class.
The grammar focus is Language of Contrast. Key vocabulary includes advocating (verb (gerund)), antithesis (noun), plummeted (verb (past tense)) and more, all drawn directly from the source material. The practical English section gives students useful phrases for real-life situations: You are in a business meeting or a formal debate discussing a controversial proposal. You need to express your opinion clearly but politely, and respond to others' views respectfully..
Activities
- A warm-up discussion to activate prior knowledge and get students thinking about the topic before watching or reading.
- Comprehension exercises based on the video to check understanding of the main ideas and key details.
- A grammar focus on Language of Contrast. At a C1 level, it's important to express contrast and opposition with nuance. While simple words like 'but' are common, more advanced structures add sophistication.
- Vocabulary expansion with advanced expressions related to Economics and society not found in the source material.
- Practical English phrases for You are in a business meeting or a formal debate discussing a controversial proposal. You need to express your opinion clearly but politely, and respond to others' views respectfully., with exercises to practise using them naturally.
- A speaking task where students role-play a real-world scenario, applying vocabulary and phrases from the lesson.
I've been advocating a form of capitalism that I call progressive capitalism, distinct, for instance, from neoliberal capitalism, the kind of capitalism that we've had for the last 40 years.
Neoliberal capitalism emphasized shareholder value maximization, minimizing the role of the state, limiting regulation, paying no attention to inequality, and paying little attention to the environment.
Progressive capitalism is almost the antithesis of each of those. It recognizes the objective of our economy is to promote the well-being of society. It's not that we are supposed to serve the economy. The economy is supposed to serve us.
And it asks, how can it do that best?
It is about capitalism. Markets are an important part of the success of any economy and any society, but also recognizes there's a more important role of the state. There's a more important role for other forms of collective action.
For instance, a central issue that we are facing is climate change. None of us individually can address climate change.
Markets, firms are an important part of the solution. But they have to be motivated, either by carbon price or regulation. So we're going to need collective action if we're going to save the planet.
I think good regulation can promote innovation. Let me give you one example.
We've been moving towards more regulation of carbon emissions. We've done it in a number of different ways, automobile regulation, many states, California, New York, a lot of discussion about carbon prices.
It's clear that's the direction that we're moving. And what has been the response? An enormous amount of innovation in renewable energy to the point where the price of renewable energy has plummeted.
It has plummeted with very little government financial support. It has really been the private sector-led innovation that has brought the price of renewables down to the point where it's competitive with old fossil fuels, many areas much cheaper than fossil fuel.
If we have a societal problem and we design regulations to respond to that societal problem, the private sector will innovate to help solve the problem.
I don't see these as in conflict at all. Good regulation creates good innovation. And by good innovation, I just mean innovation that actually has the effect of increasing societal well-being.
Metrics are part of the move. Just let me give you an example. Is labor just a cost center? And do you want to lower wages, see how much you can exploit them?
Or do you think of them as an asset, as part of your social and moral responsibility? How do you empower them, increase their capabilities?
You know, they spend a large fraction of their life in the corporation. And so if you give them some flexibility, like family leave, sick leave, if you give them maybe even more responsibility and decision making, that can make a big difference.
I think people feel better in general in thinking that they are contributing in a broad way to society, but also, say, I think in the long run this is going to be profitable. It is better for the organization, for the corporation, and for the leaders themselves.
A number of years ago, 1944, Friedrich Hayek wrote this very influential book, The Road to Serfdom. He worried that the creation of the welfare state, a strong government helping individuals would lead to authoritarianism.
We now know that he was wrong. If we look around the world, populism, authoritarianism is associated not with government doing too much, but doing too little.
By doing too little, it has given rise to discontent that threatens our democracy and threatens our ability to respond to the major challenges that we face.
And one of the reasons I wrote the book, what I call The Road to Freedom, was that I wanted to highlight that progressive capitalism is really the vehicle through which we are most likely to be best able to respond to these challenges that we are going to be facing.
If we're going to create an economy that serves society, we have to reform it, change it in fundamental ways.
Vocabulary focus
The vocabulary section introduces C1-level words and phrases related to Economics and society. Key terms include advocating (verb (gerund)), antithesis (noun), plummeted (verb (past tense)), discontent (noun), authoritarianism (noun). Students practise using these terms in context through exercises drawn from the source material.
Grammar focus
This lesson focuses on Language of Contrast. At a C1 level, it's important to express contrast and opposition with nuance. While simple words like 'but' are common, more advanced structures add sophistication.
Can capitalism be good?
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