From: mlbowli1@iupui.edu
Date: Wed Sep 24 1997 - 17:51:12 MDT
On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> Secondly, if the free market isn't evolving into what /you/ want,
> who cares? It is, by definition, evolving into what each individual
> freely chooses to make it. Any other system /would/ likely evolve
> the whole system into what only a few wanted, to the detriment of
> everyone else. I have no claim to know what's best for anyone but
> me, and free market allows me to control what's mine and nothing
> and no one else.
Please pardon if I missinterpret you, but you seem to be giving individual
consumers an unrealistic say in the out come of an unregulated economy.
An unregulated system will behave on its own according to its own
specifications, not by will of any given agent. Of course all agents
contribute to that behavior, but when interacting with 100 millions or
billions of other agents, the interactions can produce behaviors that have
nothing in common with the intentions of the actions that produced them.
The choices I freely make do not translate to a one to one correspondence
between what I want the economy to do, and what kind of behaviors I end up
contributing to. There is too much interaction and feedback in the
system. If I buy products from an upstart hoping they will prosper and
brinng me more self-enhancing tools, the opposite could happen. Many
other consumers who feel the same as me may give the suits of that firm
reckless confidenc and cause them to ride a wave of inflated growth right
into the ground. (Woops. When does Win98 come out?) I do not mean to
suggest that there should be state intervention, only that people aren't
necessarily gonna get what the bargained for in a free economy. People
will have to have to adapt and be prepared for unfavorable conditions,
however ones that are not enforced at gun point. Imagine that...
Micheal Bowling
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:57 MST