• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Robert Reich on Free Markets

johndylan1 said:
If as you suggest, "we must exert the power", in what form and upon whom, specifically, will that power be exerted? When you start thinking about this, you understand that the pie in the sky social utopia becomes a pretense for mass murder, it always does.
Click to expand...

I must have missed those police massacres in Denmark and the Netherlands.
 
johndylan1 said:
So what force do you want to exert?
Click to expand...
I actually want to remove coercion, not add to it. The free market allows capital to accumulate at the top, and that accumulation creates coercion through capital.
 
JP Hochbaum said:
I actually want to remove coercion, not add to it. The free market allows capital to accumulate at the top, and that accumulation creates coercion through capital.
Click to expand...

Which is all to say: If we want to reduce the savage inequalities and insecurities that are now undermining our economy and democracy, we have the right to do so. But we must exert the power that is supposed to be ours.

Above is a quote from your post, in the context of using government to control the markets, I guess I read it wrong....

It is nonsensical to suggest that capital wouldn't accumulate at the top, whether the "top" is free market success or governmental power. In each case the entity is maximizing the inflows of capital and returning it back into the economy. Government through redistribution; the free market through investment and consumer spending. What you have to account for is which philosophy has the best motivational effects on the society as a whole to maximize productivity and more capital formation..
 
johndylan1 said:
Which is all to say: If we want to reduce the savage inequalities and insecurities that are now undermining our economy and democracy, we have the right to do so. But we must exert the power that is supposed to be ours.

Above is a quote from your post, in the context of using government to control the markets, I guess I read it wrong....

It is nonsensical to suggest that capital wouldn't accumulate at the top, whether the "top" is free market success or governmental power. In each case the entity is maximizing the inflows of capital and returning it back into the economy. Government through redistribution; the free market through investment and consumer spending. What you have to account for is which philosophy has the best motivational effects on the society as a whole to maximize productivity and more capital formation..
Click to expand...

A mix of both seems to be lost on people these days.
 
JP Hochbaum said:
I actually want to remove coercion, not add to it. The free market allows capital to accumulate at the top, and that accumulation creates coercion through capital.
Click to expand...

No it doesn't, because the free market does not exist. I'll say it again: Until ALL are free to go to market, until all are paid enough to participate, THERE IS NO FREE MARKET.
 
Comunitee said:
No it doesn't, because the free market does not exist. I'll say it again: Until ALL are free to go to market, until all are paid enough to participate, THERE IS NO FREE MARKET.
Click to expand...

There will never be a free market. Anytime we try to let it become more free, reducing regs on the finance industry for example, it results in economic collapses. This is why we have rules and regulations, to prevent that.
 
Comunitee said:
No it doesn't, because the free market does not exist. I'll say it again: Until ALL are free to go to market, until all are paid enough to participate, THERE IS NO FREE MARKET.
Click to expand...

The No True Scotsman fallacy that market evangelists always repair to.

Somalia has a free market, so we know how that works out.
 
JP Hochbaum said:
A mix of both seems to be lost on people these days.
Click to expand...

It's not lost on me, and we can actually see the inefficiencies and disincentives applied to the economy by excessive governmental involvement. There is an important role for government within the economy but it has to be very limited. Not as an instrument of "fairness" but as an instrument in the protection of freedom of opportunity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom