Great meme: Free Market Utopians

[iconoclastNYC]

I just love this.

[CJCRANE]

1. Good name for a band! nt

[JHB]

2. It's accurate, too

Where exactly did you hear it?

[iconoclastNYC]

3. On TreeHugger

Revenge of the Free Market Utopians

A group of General Electric Company shareholders has filed a resolution urging GE not to back regulatory approaches to mitigating climate change. No matter if such regulations could give GE a competitive advantage with a host of resource efficient products and services. The Action Fund Management LLC, an investment advisor to the Free Enterprise Action Fund, has filed a shareholder resolution asking GE to justify its support to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Apparently GE requested the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allow it to exclude the resolution, but the commission denied that request.


http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/02/revenge_of_the.php

[Cats Against Frist]

4. I, for one, hate it

There is nothing that is as misunderstood as the free market. On one hand, yes, protectionism in trade, ISI, regulation, etc., is GOOD. On the other hand, there is no reason that the free market should have to look like anything that the globalists have designed. A free market system is equally as viable as a local community of traders/barterers/producers/sellers. Further, lack of consumer responsibility has helped to put us in this horrible market state, every bit as readily as predatory capitalists. Why trash on the ONE philosophy that demands responsibility on the part of the consumer?

In addition, the "free-market" doesn't sound so good to the overclass when it means the free exchange of drugs, pornography, prostitution, euthanasia services, etc. Bush sending the feds to bust up storefronts that let Seniors purchase their drugs from Canada was a very anti-free market move.

Instead of trashing the free market, people could take it back. If you think that's utopian -- maybe it is, but I like it better than a paper muzzle on a monster.

[iconoclastNYC]

5. The "Free Market" is an excuse

Not eliminate regulation. They posit that the free market is the solution to all of societies ills.

The fact is the free market is a myth, and people who think that the free market will save everything are misguided utopians, or more likely just liars.

[Cats Against Frist]

6. Did I forget to mention that

corporations with human rights, corporate welfare, no-bid contracts and farm subsidy are also anti-free market?

I said that I agree that some of the goals of the free market are utopian, because people are lazy and stupid. Just, for a second, picture the possible alternatives:

No more insurance rackets -- people form co-op insurance companies

People participate in local and non-chain or franchised consumerism (In my tiny little podunk Iowa, I can buy local milk, cheese, meat, vegetables and fruit, soap, shampoo, blankets and quilts, and much more. There are also co-op electric companies and co-op phone companies).

No war profiteering

No corporations gunning to buy our legislators

No more national brands or franchises

People stop shopping at Wal-Mart

Strong unions deriving their legitimacy from solidarity

Corporations not having human rights

No conflation of the government and the corporate state

And consumers would still have recourse for damages in the courts, on top of it.

The idea of free markets isn't all bad, you know -- that's all I'm saying. People have twisted it into something else -- but once the move is made to conflate government and business -- no matter which one is running the show, problems can arise. In our case it's called corpo-fascism. Again -- utopian, maybe. It would rely on a responsible consumer, a discriminating laborer, and the ownership class having a smidgeon of patriotism, duty and personal responsibility to society. All of these things get ignored, however, in the "government regulation v. Chinese knives for everybody" wars.

If pressed, I could possibly be cool with nationalizing energy resources, to be returned to the people in the form of local cooperatives. And nationalizing health care, but still requiring co-operative insurance for a certain percentage. I could also probably get on board with a nationalized telecommunications system that would buy technology from indpendent companies. Otherwise, I feel it is a shared responsiblity between the consumer, the worker and the owner to work this stuff out.

[Solon]

7. That sounds like Libertarian Socialism, not Libertarian Free Marketing...

look, the point is that there has never been a free market, as you concede apparently. All markets are regulated to some extent, the only differences would be whether the regulations favor the owners of businesses or the workers of businesses. In few cases, as in co-ops, they are one and the same, but in the vast majority of business worldwide, there is a HUGE gap between the owners and workers in said companies. The "Free Market" as marketed itself by its supporters is a myth, nothing more or less.