Vote totals:
Yes:
67%
No:
33%
Neutral:
0%
DEBATE: THE MARKET WORKS
THE MARKET WORKS
Individual Freedom
A market economy and a free society go hand in hand. In a market economy you are free to chose where you work and what you buy, without the state dictating on how you should live your life. As Hayek said, economic freedom is needed to have political freedom and the other way around. Once you start putting restrictions on the market, the country is on the fast track to a totalitarian regime.
I believe laws are necessary to guide the marketplace in the right direction. Democracy is the way we should choose these laws. A totally free market without laws of commerce would allow all prostitution and contract killing, crack cocaine pedaling and false marketing. I don’t want to live in Grand Theft Auto with that bloke ‘Hayek’ whoever he is, some dispossessed Russian Oligarch no doubt.
The thing about totalitarian regimes is they tend to ignore the basics of human decency, practicing torture etc. They are not obeying the common sense laws that most everybody accepts. Totalitarian regimes prosper after periods of chaos, when the laws of common decency have failed.
THE MARKET WORKS
The surplus
The opposing argument fails to offer references for the figures on which it is based and therefore they are meaningless.
In the U.S. over 95% of wealth is held by just 5% of the population. Is that 5% of the population producing 95% of the GDP ? No. It is the other 95% that builds the roads, teaches the students, cooks the food and manufactures the PCs or Macs your are using right now. However, after the products are sold, the workers get only a small percentage of the revenue, the rest going to managers and, most importantly, shareholders. How is it fair that the result of your labor goes to someone else who didn’t work at all ( 90% of the worlds richest people having over 2/3 of their fortune coming from inheritance ). Why shouldn’t the man building houses be able to afford one ? Why shouldn’t the car maker be able to afford one ?
THE MARKET WORKS
It works yes, but its an immensely powerful force. It needs very careful democratic regulation.
If we were to live in a totally unregulated market, without any rules or regulations, ie if the only rule was that rules and regulations were banned we would have to undo the huge steps we have made as a species allowing us to live and prosper together. The argument that a free market promotes prosperity is all very well, but do we really want those who choose to obey no personal rules to be the most prosperous. What do we call those in our society who choose not to obey the democratic rules of the country? We call them criminals, and those who have prospered from their crimes have utilised the marketplace to their advantage. I don’t think people should be allowed to prosper by supplying the marketplace with whatsoever it craves. Some businesses are legitimate others aren’t.
THE MARKET WORKS
It certainly hasn’t been working for the US of A just now!
Or was it over regulation that has lead to the complete abandonment of the rules of the free market now w.r.t the major investment banks , mortgage providers, AIG insurance etc., etc. ? !!!
The market wasnt regulated , and it failed and now the common man will suffer and the rich and powerful will lie and obfuscate and propagandise and hide away with their riches.
Ok . If you want a really free market lets even up the playing field and make everybody have the same number of chips at the start of the game, or better still, lets make it really it a totally free marketplace and allow everybody to print their own money like the US federal reserve. A nice dose of hyperinflation to wipe out the bumps in the uneven playing field of a distorted market! Oh maybe the fed is going to print enough for us all anyway!!!
