Group: alt.philosophy · Group Profile
Author: EdEd Date: Sep 9, 2008 09:36
On Sep 7, 4:02Â am, Fred Weiss papertig.com> wrote:> On Sep 6, 6:50Â pm, Ed earthlink.net> wrote:
>>> Whatever happened to our belief in the market?
>
> Huh? "We" haven't believed in the market for a very, very long time.
>
> The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was passed in 1890. It's been downhill from
> there.
>
There seems to be a fundamental paradox in the "free market". If one
does not legislate against monopolies there is a significant
probability that one giant monopoly will eventually form dominating
the entire economy. The question is whether the market is then
"free". On the other hand if one legislates against monopolies then
the market is no longer "free". Theorists have speculated that if the
market were entirely unregulated the monopolies would not survive if
they were not efficient at meeting the demands of the consumers. This
has never been tested. One difficulty is that the entry fee for
modern technological endeavors can be very high, so high that it may
not be profitable overall to try to compete with a large monopoly even
if one could be marginally more efficient. This situation seem to
exist now in refineries in the USA. If one has a technological
breakthrough that enables drastic improvements then it will be obvious
to the monopoly that their best interest is in acquiring this
competitor rather than competing with it.
> (The basic problem all along has been the defenders of capitalism
> could never reconcile it with the prevailing religious/ethical beliefs
> in self-sacrifice, the evil of money, etc. However since Ayn Rand (and
> others) combined with the evident and utter failure of socialism,
> along with capitalism's clear new success in China, Eastern Europe,
> Ireland, and elsewhere, the argument for free markets has taken on new
> vigor. There however is still a long battle ahead, ending gov't bail-
> outs being just one example.)
>
> Fred Weiss
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