On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 10:30 -0600, Kyle Waters wrote: > Andy Bradford wrote: > > > > You mean the ``free market'' where people voluntarily exchange for > > things they desire more than what they have actually works and you would > > willingly particpate in it? Of course this kind of utopian thing can't > > work. > > I just want to point out the irony here. Utopia is a book about a > democratic socialist society.
I'd also like to point out that a "free market" is only possible when government exists to protect it. Lack of government is not a "free market" it is an anarchy (more commonly referred to as a war zone). There are many reasons the US is an economic powerhouse. One of them is the fact that we more strictly enforce contract law. But too much of a good thing is not a better thing. For example, compare the enforcement of non-compete agreements in California and Massachusetts. http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080620/tc_pcworld/147337 Government is also useful to make hidden costs apparent. Laissez-faire capitalism alone does nothing to account for the cost of pollution because it unfairly offloads to cost to third parties that have not chosen to "willingly particpate in it". Sending cars trucks out to sit in gridlock (with their engines turned off lest you think I'm still talking about pollution) may be sustainable for a company, but not for society. It is the roll of government to institute taxes and make companies consider the societal costs of their decisions. Along a similar line, laissez-faire does nothing to unlock the full benefits of high quality communication and transportation infrastructure. The interstate highway system was a giant boost to our economic development and another reason we're an economic super power. The Internet is following the same course. Were they created by "the market"? No. They were both created by the government as part of our defense infrastructure. It took government to create them, and "the market" to take full advantage of them. You can't separate one from the other. Attempts to ignore the critical role of government to nurture and regulate a capitalist economy are not only stupid, they are willfully blind and stupid. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
