Posted tagged ‘Free market’

Walter E. Williams, The Free Market Is Not Allowed To Work.

January 7, 2013

From the video, “When H.L. Mencken was asked what is the definition of an election he said, and I quote,”Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is an advance auction on the sale of stolen goods”.”

If the intervention of Government into the market could be limited to the theft of our production through taxation, our economy wouldn’t be in as bad a condition as it is. Government couldn’t have grown as intrusive as it has, if it was limited to spending only what it steals in taxes, and because it would (more…)

Walter E. Williams; Free Market Capitalism Produces A Higher Standard Of Living For Everyone.

December 25, 2012

Even though it is not planned by any particular person or group of people, the outcome of the free market process can be seen all around us in the incredible standard of living we enjoy. When our country’s main health problem is obesity and not malnutrition, and it seems that everyone owns a cell phone, we are rather well off as a country.

The main problem we face now and moving forward is, will we allow free market capitalism to continue to increase our standard of living, or because we don’t like how wealth is “distributed” as a result of this process, will we (more…)

Spontaneous Order Utilizes More Knowledge Than Central Planning Could Ever Hope To Utilize.

December 10, 2012

This video from http://www.learnliberty.org talks about spontaneous ordering processes.

This quote by Thomas Sowell, “The abstract existence of knowledge means nothing unless it is applied at the point of decision or action“, explains why the spontaneous order of the market, efficiently produces more output than central planners can produce in a statist economy. The market economy brings abstract knowledge and decision makers together more effectively than central planning could ever hope to do.

Abstract knowledge can’t be known by one individual or board of individuals, this fact alone dooms central planning to failure. Even if planners knew all of the abstract knowledge of every individual , they wouldn’t know the exact time or place to apply this knowledge in the decision-making process. Voluntary cooperation through the free market process is (more…)

We’re All Born In The Middle Of The Story.

November 30, 2012
The Passage of Time

The Passage of Time (Photo credit: ToniVC)

Each of us was born at a specific time on a specific day of a specific month in a specific year of a specific decade in a specific era of history. Having lived for fifty plus years, I look back at the numerous days, or five decades, or the few eras of history in which I have lived, and realize that you can’t break up time into these convenient measurements and look at them separately. They do not stand on their own. As Thomas Sowell said, “results observed at a given point in time may be part of a process that stretches far back in time.”

Most people think history started the day they were born. They give little thought, or have no understanding of how the world that existed the day they were born came to exist as it did. Where each person is, and what they are doing today, is the result of decisions made by them and other people, in the recent past and the distant past. An example of this is, (more…)

Keynes vs. Hayek Round II, The Fight Of The Century.

November 19, 2012

Mises states, “The issue is always the same: the Government or the market, there is no third solution.” This has been the fight of the century, and will be the fight of the next century. Top down central planning by the state vs, bottom up voluntary cooperation in the market.

Central planning by the State sounds so logical and reasonable if analysed on the surface. Spending creates demand and people will produce to supply this demand. That’s simple and easy to understand on the surface, but a deeper analysis reveals that the structure of production is a very complex process. This complex structure of production was created by the spontaneous ordering processes in the free market not (more…)

Government Intervention Distort’s Market Signals, Unintended Consequences are the Result.

October 23, 2012
Unintended Consequences by John Ross, 1996

Unintended Consequences by John Ross, 1996 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Government tries to steer the economy, unintended consequences happen because individuals don’t act the same after Government steering as they did before. The only way central planners have a chance to make their plans work is if people are made to act the way planners want. The only way to make people obey is to have a totalitarian state which can enforce the rules of the central planners. Even though our individual freedoms have been slowly taken away over the last fifty years, enough of a free market remains allowing us to make enough individual decisions, which ultimately thwarts the plans of the planners. Each of us (more…)

Spontaneous Order More Complex Than Top Down Planning.

October 4, 2012

F. A. Hayek—” The free market pricing mechanism has a double misfortune. It is not the product of human design, and the people guided by it usually do not know why they are made to do what they do.”

This video shows how spontaneous orders create complexity which can’t be duplicated by planning. Far more knowledge is utilized through this process, which is why voluntarily cooperation through free market capitalism has historically produced (more…)