Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Naked Capitalism Link of the Day

Today's link: A Microcosm of Market Manipulation in the US and the Repeated Failure of Ideology, from Jesse's Cafe Americain.  From the post:
It is getting to be a bit much, and is going to end badly. It will end badly because like the economy which has been crafted by the same makers it is hollow, a facade, set up for the benefit of a few who transfer wealth to themselves from the many. As someone wrote to me today:
"There aren’t really many good options for people who just want to save some money for retirement and live their lives in the meantime. Not even social security or pensions for 30-year veteran teachers are safe from pirate raids and partisan deconstruction. Everything else available to the ordinary retail and retirement saver has become a Wall Street killing floor."
This is no accident. This is no error in judgement. This is not philosophy. It is a calculated white collar crime, that has co-opted many elements of society. It hides behind slogans like 'small government' and 'libertarianism' and 'free markets' but its real intent is to subvert the law and corrupt the processes of the economy and society. It is a type of financial coup d'etat.

The problem is not that there is too much government, but rather, the government which you have is tainted with corruption and needs a thorough cleaning and reform. Knock down all the fences if you will in the name of an unsustainable ideal, and give the ravening wolves free range for their plunder. And then be surprised.

Anyone who believes that not enforcing the rules, or even simply eliminating them, will result in the natural and efficient flow of productive activity has never driven on a modern freeway. This notion is just another version of a belief in the noble savage, the view that people are naturally good and rational, but are corrupted by rules and society. And those people who espouse this think that they are cavorting in some magical world with Peter Pan, instead of with some of the oldest and basest forms of evil against which good people have continually come together throughout history for their mutual protection.
Amen to that.  There is also a link to a story about the city of Vernon, California, which is a city of and for businesses.  Ok, here's this second link for the day.

2 comments:

  1. You made a point yesterday about the error (or over-simplification) of equating government and business. I wonder if the same people questing for smaller government are confusing the purpose of laws with the inefficient application of law in the same manner people confuse increasing governemnt efficiency with following a business model.

    The laws or regulations are enacted for a reason; a problem is recognized and society creates rules to avoid the future recurrance. However, efficient application of the law is not guaranteed. For example, HIPAA is a great concept about implementing privacy regulations on people's personal health information. The rollout of HIPAA has been and continues to be a major nightmare for health care providers. People complain about HIPAA, but what would people say if health care providers started selling the private information to drug companies?

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  2. Good point about HIPAA. I think a lot of the difficulty associated with regulation in general and putting in place efficient government stems from having to cover so many details to try to close every loophole which bad actors may take advantage of. It makes the regulations burdensome for people who will generally do the right thing anyway.

    As far as the people working for smaller government, I think they want inefficient application of the law because it makes their case for less government stronger. That is why I don't trust Republican. They say government can't work, then they get elected and use their ineptitude as proof.

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