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Olga Bourlin wrote:
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<pre wrap="">From: "Rafal Smigrodzki" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:rafal.smigrodzki@gmail.com"><rafal.smigrodzki@gmail.com></a>
To: "ExI chat list" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org"><extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org></a>
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<pre wrap="">On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 7:16 PM, Olga Bourlin <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:fauxever@sprynet.com"><fauxever@sprynet.com></a>
wrote:
(in answer to a previous post of Lee Corbin's) Your remark about
"institutions dead nearly 150 years ago" does not take into account de
jure segregation that existed in parts of the USA into the 1960s, and
many instances of de facto segregation since then. Those institutions
are interrelated - and not all dead.
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Of course the question we are really trying to answer is whether a
totally free market will always be superior to a market that is managed
and manipulated by government. If we were just talking about the past,
then it would be obvious that government regulation is necessary.
Without labor laws, people were working for pennies - or even as
slaves. Without the FDA, companies were free to market any kind of
snake oil they could. The free market didn't build the interstate
highway system we all enjoy and I doubt it would have been built
without government intervention. And without compulsory education there
is no telling where we would be at the moment but I am sure evolution
would be taught even less. Most of the large bloated bureaucracies were
created in response to the shortcomings of the free market. <br>
<br>
But we're not talking about the past. We're talking about the future.
In the past, if someone was using a cheap process to create a toy which
left lead in the paint that could harm children, there was no way to
quickly prove it and notify people. If an employer wanted to pay
pennies the people couldn't hop on the internet and find a job in
another city that paid twice as much because they wanted better people.
The free flow of information offsets most - if not all - of the
benefits of the bureaucratic systems that are in place. A free market
can only work when there is a free and rapid flow of information.
Consumer
Reports is a service I subscribe to and it is much more effective than
the consumer product safety commission could ever hope to be and I'm
sure you can figure out all the reasons why. <br>
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My point is that it's probably a waste of time debating the free market
of the past as there are significant differences today. What we should
be focusing on is how we can utilize these technologies today to create
a more efficient system than exists now.
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