Open Market, Free Market, The Market

[tunisond]

The subject line contains some of the favorite phrases used to explain the meanderings of the economy. The uses are both prescriptive ("if only the market were allowed to work") and descriptive ("if only the market had been allowed to work") and is almost always followed by something to the effect of: "then everything would be more-better." The

Comments

[jtunison]

Not sure I understood all of this post, but one difference between "dollar voting" (in the "free market") and regular voting (in the republican democracy) is that, in the government, there are many more levels of indirection between your carrot (the ballot or your dollar bill) and the guy who is incented to act on your behalf.

It's the reason that Wal-Mart was redirecting (on a massive scale) extra toilet paper and water to the New Orleans region, even /before/ the hurricane hit, while FEMA is still trying to figure out if the region is at risk for flooding.

It's all about incentives.

[tunisond]

I'm not making any claim that one is better than the other or that one is more efficient than the other (which depends entirely upon how one defines efficiency and changes depending on the circumstance). My point is only that they are inseparable -- consumers exercising control, either directly or indirectly, is still part of a free market.

Gratuitous reference

[pdknz]

Hi Doug--

By coincidence I stumbled onto this book recommendation--

In Capitalism 3.0, Peter Barnes redefines the debate about the costs and benefits of the operating system known as the free market. Despite clunky features, early versions of capitalism were somewhat successful. The current model, however, is packed with proprietary features that benefit a lucky few while threatening to crash the system for everyone else. Far from being "free," the market is accessible only to huge corporations that reap the benefits while passing the costs on to the consumer.

To stay on your topic, I think it's relevant that when people cast votes they frequently don't get what they vote for.

Re: Gratuitous reference

[tunisond]

Yeah, the democratic system in practice isn't very democratic is a whole 'nother discussion.

Re: Gratuitous reference

[met1]

It's a little off-topic, but I note corporations are collections of shareholders, who benefit or suffer depending on the profitability of the corporation. $ collected by a corporation can only go (in the long run) to three recipients: shareholders, employees, and government, the latter via taxes. In the case of large corporations, employees are normally a small fraction of the total.