***>Does this mean that you do not regard public goods and inadequately defined property rights as important sources of market failure?<***
Not necessarily, but the focus of our attention is the financial system. -- ***>Does this mean that you advocate laws against the corporate form of enterprise -- i.e., what used to be called the "joint stock company."<*** I was not referring to corporate dividends but what social credit calls the "national dividend." We are in favor of corporate dividends--the more the better. As to the corporate form of enterprise, it is one of the great innovations that arose in the seventeenth century, along with banking and insurance. In the final analysis, they are all variations upon the common theme--pooled resources and shared risk. Each contains in rudimentary form the essential elements of the others, so there is no fine dividing line between them. Having said that, the corporation is a human construct that may be adjusted and improved to serve our purposes. The founder of social credit, C. H. Douglas, said on more than one occasion that holding companies should be prohibited. By that he meant corporations that own corporations. In his time the most typical holding companies were banks. In the United States today that is prohibited, although it remains common practice in Germany and Japan, I believe. Now, there are corporations that own corporations that own corporations, Enron and Tyco being newsworthy recent examples. It becomes a question of accountability that is difficult if not impossible in such complex structures. Jeff Skilling, Enron's former CFO, in Congressional testimony described Enron's collapse as akin to a "run on the bank." It was indeed. Unquestionably, there should be exceptions. When Douglas wrote eighty years ago there were no pension funds or beneficial insurance funds. Perhaps the matter of limiting liability should be revisited. The stockholders of the original joint- stock companies, some of which are still in business today, were personally liable for the firm's debts. Limiting liability might be more detrimental to free enterprise than beneficial. -- --------- Original Message --------- DATE: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:20:29 From: Pat Gunning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >>Yes, but the particular set of rules is a human >>construct. It is something other than a natural >>phenomenon, awaiting discovery. The market in which >>there is undeniably a "hidden hand" is the function >>of that human construct that we can improve by >>consciously changing the rules. >> >> >Agreed. > >>The focus of attention for social credit is the >>financial system, or more specifically the banking or >>monetary system. We attribute most market failure >>not to free enterprise per se, but the financial >>system under which free enterprise operates. So we >>generally support laissez-faire in markets but >>intervention in finance. >> >> >Does this mean that you do not regard public goods and inadequately >defined property rights as important sources of market failure? > >>Unlike Keynesians or socialists, we advocate the >>payment of dividends directly to consumers and let >>them decide themselves how they will spend it. >> >> >Does this mean that you advocate laws against the corporate form of >enterprise -- i.e., what used to be called the "joint stock company." > >>We regard Say's Law to be invalid for anything other >>than a barter economy. >> >> >> > > >-- >Pat Gunning, Feng Chia University, Taiwan; >Web pages on Praxeological Economics, Democracy, Taiwan, Ludwig von Mises, Austrian >Economics, and my University Classes; >http://www.constitution.org/pd/gunning/welcome.htm >and >http://knight.fcu.edu.tw/~gunning/welcome.htm > ____________________________________________________________ Enter for a chance to win one year's supply of allergy relief! http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;6413623;3807821;f?http://mocda3.com/1/c/563632/125699/307982/307982 This offer applies to U.S. Residents Only --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84IaC.bcVIgP.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html --^----------------------------------------------------------------
