Why I support markets

[FreeJoe]

There have been several postings here lately suggesting that we convert to a socialist economy or that capitalism is doomed and/or inherently evil. I am posting this to explain why I, as a Democrat, support having a market based economy.

The first reason is that I am a freedom loving Democrat. Heck, it was the oppressiveness of Republicans that drove me away from them. I see a market based economy as the most free economic environment. I can sell my goods and services to whoever wants to buy them for any price that we both agree upon. I like that much better than having anyone dictate what I can produce or how much I can charge for it.

With that said, I definitely don't advocate for completely unregulated markets. We need regulations to protect us from externalities like pollution. We need regulations to protect against discrimination. We need regulations to protect against exploitation. I love free markets, but I also love to see them well regulated.

My second reason for favoring market economies is that I find the pricing information they generate to be essential to the efficient allocation of goods and services. Knowing how much to produce, what to produce, and where to distribute it is extremely difficult. I don't think that a centrally planned economy can work. It is all the little individual decisions on what how much people are willing to pay for goods and services that tell people what to produce.

My final, and most important, reason for supporting market based economies is that they work. While it is great fun to engage in theorectical debates about the best way to do things, I also like to stay grounded in how the world really works. When I look at the most successful countries the world as measured by median income, they all rely on market based economies. The best ones supplement that with strong safety nets and smart regulations, but the core of their economies are market based.

The record for government controlled economies is not very good. The living standards in countries like that have virtually always been relatively poor. I think that they fail for two reasons - lack of pricing information to allocation resources and inherent corruption problems.

That's my view. I want what works for the most people. I don't believe in perfect systems. My philosophical views and real world observations lead me to believe that market based solutions with smart regulations and strong safety nets are the best solution, not government controlled economies.

[drmeow]

1. Where do worker owned factories

fall into this in your opinion?

[FreeJoe]

2. I love the idea of worker owned companies

If workers want to start a company or buy a company, that's great. Back in my camping days, one of my favorite companies was REI. They are a national coop that sells camping goods. I guess they are more customer owned rather than worker owned, but both work well for me.

They key is that, regardless of who owns it, they are free to set prices and people are free to buy or not buy their products.

Honestly, one of my biggest problems with companies in this country today is that the owners (shareholders) often have too little control. The management runs the company for themselves rather than for the owners. A worker owned company would help prevent that.

[drmeow]

3. To me this is the core

of communism and is a strong element of socialist democracies.

One of the problems with communism and socialism as they are practices is that they are confounded by totalitarianism. Hence it is difficult to separate the negative effects of totalitarianism from any negative effects of communism or socialism.

Don't get me wrong - in its pure sense I think communism as envisioned by Marx would be a complete and abject failure in today's world. On the other hand, in an 18th or 19th century or in a post apocalyptic type world (i.e., where communities are much more interdependent), it would work exceptionally well. Some of the community cooperation going on in Japan (shared resources, shared housing, voluntary self rationing) are what communism could be at its best.

[cemaphonic]

4. yay for pragmatism.

Keep in mind, though that although there is a vocal contingent of hardcore anti-capitalists here, lots of people promoting Socialism here mean "more like France."

[pscot]

5. A market based economy sounds like a great idea

as opposed to the monopolistic symbiosis between government and corporations that's been systematically looting our country, sending our jobs abroad and waging war on worker and the middle class. Wherever the corporations move in, main street dies. Where is the market discipline that is supposed to control the to-big-to-fail banks? What is the virtue of a market that replaces thousands of local media sources with five or six corporate hegemonists who are more interested in catapulting the propagands than informing the public? If things go on as they are, the result won't be nearly as benign as socialism. The oligarchs who are trying to devour us are sowing the seeds of revolution and anarchy.

[TheKentuckian]

6. Capitalism is failed. Markets are not capitalism but a part of it.

Certainly markets had use before capitalism and we will use them after it.

[Exilednight]

7. That seems like an overly simplistic view.

how do you define "government controlled economy"? Should it be regulated? If so, how much regulation is enough regulation? What aspects of our current market based economy are good and bad?

Should we allow short selling? Should we allow futures trading? Should we allow OTCD trading? Should allow banks to grow as big as the ones we had to bail out? Should we allow any company to control large percentages of market share? How should they be taxed? Should they be allowed to keep their profits offshore to avoid paying taxes?

There's just way too many unanswered questions in this to either agree or disagree with.

[Siouxmealso]

8. "I love free markets, but I also love to see them well regulated."

But then they wouldn't be free markets, would they?

[Shagbark Hickory]

9. This is the problem with all these clear-as-mud "What is Socialism" posts that have been flying

around here lately.

If you don't know what socialism is, don't post F.A.Q.s about it.

[99th_Monkey]

10. Worker-ownership, cooperative economics, economic democracy: see Mondragon. ~nt