[Crazyblue]

Care to outline exactly how you would go about fixing the economy. You have a ton of criticisms, and some of them are legitimate, but in terms of fixing everything and getting it past the house, how would you do it?

[patrick12]

The economy is so complicated and the dynamics of why a free-market works are so complicated that it is difficult for anyone to make an exposition on it that covers every single detail. A lot people think because of this inability for proponents of free-markets to give a flawless exposition on the subject every time one is asked for and do so immediately, that free-market capitalism must be a phony idea that doesn't actually work.

People that think this are wrong. It is in fact because the dynamics of an economy/society are so complicated that makes it impossible for a human to effectively run it and necessitates failure every time humans do attempt to do this.

[dungeonguy88]

Well as long as we tried it and didn't succeed, we can safely say it's impossible. That is afterall the basis for all human achievement, giving up as soon as it challenges us.

There's a nice quote about democracy that I think applies, going along the lines of "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the ones that came before."

So yeah, capitalism, not too bad. That hardly means we stop looking for something better. There were probably people that it didn't get any better than mercantilism and monarchies, glad we didn't listen to them.

[wasabi]

Fight fire with fire. This is what it seems to be happening anyway.

It seems like we will have a world goverment whether we want it or not.

[Distance]

Legions of thought police will invade dreams, homes and minds.

[dungeonguy88]

	Originally Posted by Distance To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Legions of thought police will invade dreams, homes and minds.

So, we're gonna get some Inception-style insanity all up in this place? Kinda sounds cool.

[Distance]

	Originally Posted by dungeonguy88 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	So, we're gonna get some Inception-style insanity all up in this place? Kinda sounds cool.

Spin your token for reassurance!

[paleoeco]

Originally Posted by patrick12 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

The economy is so complicated and the dynamics of why a free-market works are so complicated that it is difficult for anyone to make an exposition on it that covers every single detail. A lot people think because of this inability for proponents of free-markets to give a flawless exposition on the subject every time one is asked for and do so immediately, that free-market capitalism must be a phony idea that doesn't actually work. People that think this are wrong. It is in fact because the dynamics of an economy/society are so complicated that makes it impossible for a human to effectively run it and necessitates failure every time humans do attempt to do this.

The problem with purely free market economies is that they have never produced the society promised to us by the economists. The "free-market" is like some economic god that will magically fix everything that's broken if we just have faith and give it time to work. Well, that's BS.

The late 1800s and the early 1900s provide a nice lesson for us. The "Robber Barons" had everything they wanted from government, which was basically free reign to do as they pleased. Generally speaking industry and manufacturing lived by the free market, as the vast marjority of regulations and protections came about during and after the Great Depression.

Take a look at America under during this time: the greatest income inequality in our country, until now; monopolies in industry with employees paid in "company chits" instead of real income; working conditions that were dangerous, inhumane and ghastly.

Read the muckrakers reports from the early 1900s; read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair; read anything that talks about the lives of the vast majority of Americans during this time. It wasn't a Utopia, and Free-Market ideologues who proclaim that it will be all rainbows and unicorns if only the government would get out of the economy are blind to the history.

Much like everyone says that Socialism is great on paper; it just doesn't work in reality - need to say the same about Free-Market Capitalism. Sure, it sounds greats that "markets will find an equilibrium", but it's all horse-sh*t in the end. No economic system is perfect, but the notion that it only would be so if we do more of the sh*t that's making it not-perfect is assinine, to the nth degree.