The Not So Invisible Hand

The Market is NOT Magic. It has underlying dynamics that cause it to work in some cases and not work in others.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Free
• Market
• Dynamics

[whippoorwillss]

I like to use the traffic anology. let the drivers(people) and the cars(businesses) go where they want and do what they want. that is "what they want" is up to them. but, with in a frame work of laws. Laws that are enforced by roving police that are blanced with a court. sounds familer right? If one driver pushes anothe car off the road or another car passes another driver by using a side walk he/she or it gets put in jail and has a day in court were in justice is renderd.

[j0hnwi11iams]

But this analogy doesn't hold because many of the laws involving traffic are PROACTIVE. We prevent cars from speeding. We prevent them from running red lights. In the world of business without regulation we only know something went wrong after there has been damage. Your analogy is in fact a brilliant example of why we need regulation.

[whippoorwillss]

if cars were prevented from speeding then why do people get speeding tickets? and same with running red lights..cars are not prevented from running lights. if you are prevented from doing something thats PROACTIVE..seeing that we get tickets for doing these things we in fact were not pervented from said act. where in...the ticket/day in traffic court is REACTIVE. you can not prevent greed, terrorism or farts with out absolute control of everybodys ass.

[j0hnwi11iams]

We do not prevent ALL cars from speeding, we prevent most cars from speeding. The point is not so much to prevent speeding, but to prevent accidents, especially those where an irresponsible driver hurts others. The same holds for drunk driving.

[esfreerider]

nothing you said actually disagrees with the principal of the "invisible hand" but you did disagree with its name and say its not magic. nobody actually believes its magic. the invisible hand WORKS just because its far more complicated then its traditional analogy doesnt mean that it doesnt work all it means is that it can be very hard to see when when things dont travel in a straight line or by themselfs

[zsylvana]

Pro-marketeers may ask,is equality and generosity sustainable in the context of the world market?The irrefutable answer is Yes!For many years,the Scandinavian countries have also been at the very top of the Global Competitiveness Reports by World Economic Forum at Davos. Denmark,was ranked third in global competitiveness in 2008,and Sweden fourth in 2007-08.Britain under New Labour)had slipped from second in 2007 to ninth in 2008 The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-08 World Economic Forum

[zsylvana]

"The evidence that unequal societies inflict great damage on the lives and health of their citizens is clear.Why does it matter and what can be done?"Asks Göran Therborn professor of sociology at Cambridge University.Editor, Inequal.ities of the World:New Theoretical Frameworks,Multiple Empirical Approaches Verso,2006).

"There are at least three quite different kinds of inequality,and they are all destructive of human lives and of human societies.The first is inequality of health and death"

[j0hnwi11iams]

Are you forgetting the new deal? The ICC you mention was put in place in response to monopoly abuse by railroads. Either they could have that regulation or they could nationalize the rails in some way to promote competitive service. A good reason for having nationalized transportation infrastructure.

[j0hnwi11iams]

What are you talking about? They lobbied for deregulation. They lobbied for FERC to turn a blind eye to the whole thing. They created a spot market and drove it to instability.

[LastTrueLiberal]

"The "mixed" economy got that way to address specific problems."

No. Behind every single piece of economic regulation, starting with the interstate commerce commission in the 19th century, there are corporate lobbyists behind the scenes pushing for it. Every single piece of economic regulation is designed to benefit a minority at the expense of everyone else. These extreme concentrations of wealth are not a natural product of the "free market."