From: Reason (reason@exratio.com)
Date: Fri Aug 24 2001 - 13:33:23 MDT
--> Miriam English [miriam@werple.net.au]
> At 11:22 AM 24/08/2001 -0400, Dickey, Michael F wrote:
> >Indeed, I entirely agree, companies do need to be regulated.
> But the do not
> >need to be regulated by the government. No free market
> economist will tell
> >you that a 'free for all' is what we are looking for. Unions and private
> >watch dog groups would be much more influential and usefull in a
> free market
> >environment.
>
> Again, I mention that this might work if we were motivated by economics
> alone, but it isn't so. People develop allegiances and cartels and
> anticompetitive practices like price fixing. They use marketing
> tactics to
> push shoddy merchandise. They propagate false information using
> advertising
> and misleading labels. Companies don't work very well to regulate each
> other... that is why we have government-funded investigations
> into illegal
> operating practices of some companies.
Your implicit assumption here is that customers are powerless and clueless.
Why are they powerless and clueless? Because they have been taught to be so
from birth by a government that reinforces the message "you are powerless
and clueless" with every new piece of legislation that assumes people can't
make educated decisions.
In a completely free market in which the government performs no oversight,
the role of oversight and monitoring becomes open to for-profit concerns,
who will spring up and compete for the dollars that acting in that role can
bring. Because a corrupt oversight organization is one that will shortly go
out of business [unless of course, it happens to be the government :) ], you
have your free market model for self-regulation right there.
One would also assume that a completely free market would "evolve" more
aware, responsible and proactive consumers -- a very good thing in my mind.
How can you expect the quality of society to improve when every effort is
made to put social processes in place that encourage people to be
uneducated, lazy and complacent?
Reason
http://www.exratio.com/
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