Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Free Market vs Government
Private enterprise maintains and expands itself by continually offering people things they want. Government maintains and expands itself by depriving people of things they want, by means of forcibly seizing their goods (taxation) and forcibly preventing them from trading and living as they choose (regulation).
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Private enterprise maintains and expands itself by continually trying to maximize profits. Sometimes, that means offering people things they want. Sometimes, it means making people believe they want something they don't, sometimes it means forcing out competitors, sometimes it means reducing costs by reducing quality, sometimes compromising safety (e.g., toys with lead paint from China, or the auto industry's resistance to providing safety belts). Private enterprise has no moral code and cares not about what's good for their customers, as long as they make money. Corporations are not beholden to anyone but shareholders, and therefore tend towards behavior that would be categorized as sociopathic if exhibited by an individual person.
ReplyDeleteGovernment maintains and expands itself by various means; sometimes, it's through the democratic process, when people (or their elected representatives) determine a need and enact legislation to fulfill that need. Sometimes governments expand their power through force.
Why must you paint things with such a broad brush? Things in the real world are almost never just black or white. Government can be good, government can be bad. Private enterprise can be good, private enterprise can be bad. In the real world, we likely need both to make sure neither is too powerful.
If life (money) is taken by force, good can not come from it. Give me one example where government does good, and we can debate that. Let's get away from the broad brush. Private enterprise, if not screwed with by government, produces products and services by pleasing customers. The more profits, the more good it has done.
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