Gilder, George (1939–)

GEORGE GILDER IS A libertarian social philosopher and futurologist. After attending Exeter Academy, he graduated from Harvard University in 1962. After a brief stint in Washington D.C., he returned to Har-vard's Kennedy Institute of Politics as a research fellow and became the editor of the Ripon Forum, a magazine informally affiliated with the Republican Party. During this time, several prominent public figures, including Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, and President Richard Nixon, employed him as a speechwriter.

In the 1970s Gilder's research into society and poverty resulted in a string of influential books. In his 1972 book Men and Marriage he reaffirms the traditional gender roles as a critical underpinning for the stability and advancement of society (as it was seen as one of the first serious intellectual attacks on the modern feminist movement, Gilder was awarded the “Male Chauvinist Pig of the Year” award in 1974 by the National Organization for Women).

This was followed in 1978 by Visible Man: A True Story of Post-Racist America, titled in contrast to Elli-son's Invisible Man. Following the story of a young African American falsely accused of rape, Gilder makes the case that much of his plight, like that of others in the lower socioeconomic classes, can be traced back to perverse antisocial incentives and designs of policies of the welfare system. Thus Gilder claims that liberalism, rather than alleviating social ills, perpetuates them. Many themes from both of these earlier works are found again in Gilder's 1981 best-seller Wealth and Poverty, a book closely associated with the advent of supply-side economics and sometimes referred to as “the bible of the Reagan revolution.”

Indeed Gilder's association with pioneering supply-side economics was furthered by his involvement in several public forums, such as the Lehrman Institute's Economics Roundtable, the Manhattan Institute, A.B. Laffer's economic reports, and contributions to the Wall Street Journal's editorial pages. The term supply-side economics is in contrast to Keynesian economics with its emphasis on fostering economic growth by stimulating demand, often with the use of government spending programs. Thus, supply-siders view creating individual incentives to encourage the supply of labor and capital as key to securing economic growth and alleviating poverty.

George Gilder's research into society and poverty resulted in a string of influential books on supply-side economics.

The main instruments to this end are viewed as reducing disincentives to supplying labor by reducing effective marginal tax rates on labor (including a reduction in many welfare programs) and creating higher return on capital by letting entrepreneurial efforts develop through a reduction in regulations and a reduction in marginal tax rates. On the whole, it is an optimistic philosophy of increasing wealth at all levels through the creation and protection of individual opportunity. During his presidency, Ronald Reagan frequently cited Gilder for his supply-side theories.

It has been said, “If everybody working for the government is Orwellian, then Gilderian would be nobody working for the government.” Nevertheless, it is argued [Page 432]that a desirable side effect of supply-side policies is that the stimulated economic growth increases the size of the tax base to such a degree that government revenues increase despite the reductions in the tax rates. In the end, while many propositions associated with supply-side economics have gained increased acceptance in the academic community over the last several decades, there is no overall consensus concerning their broad validity and applicability.

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