statistics

spectors wrote:

> Maybe central planners are insensitive, or worse, corrupt in how they plan
> the economy. Maybe it is idealistic to think that they can ever be a
> reflection of the aspirations of the great majority. But isn't it MORE
> IDEALISTIC to think that allowing unbridled greed to run society, supposedly
> kept in check by the magical hand of "supply and demand"  will prevent
> corporations from taking advantage of the population. Of course those same
> "anti-big government" corporations and mouthpieces have NO PROBLEM USING BIG
> GOVERNMENT WHEN THEY WANT TO.  Hence the rise in prison population, hence
> the military build up, school uniforms, metal detectors, Identification
> cards, drug testing, increased police powers, etc.  They like "free
> enterprise" when it allows them to grab what they can. They love big
> government when they want to protect their interests. Taken to its extreme,
> it becomes fascism.

You raise two important questions, Alan. First, is it true that a free
market regime with a minimum of government intervention (what you call
unbridled greed) will lead to such unevenness of wealth that the more
wealthy will dominate government decisions? We could pose this question
for a democracy and also for a dictatorship. Statistics showing a static
uneven distribution of wealth under current conditions do not help us
answer this question for two reasons. First, current conditions are not
those of free market capitalism. All nations restrict the free market
and many nations hardly have a free market at all. Second, free market
capitalism is a dynamic regime in which newcomers are always emerging
and oldtimers must continually face new competition.

Second, if this is true, is there any way to bridle the free market so
that either wealth will not be so uneven or that the wealthy will not be
able to dominate government decisions? On wonders whether trying to
answer these questions might be more productive that simply blaming the
world trading system for many of the world's evils.

By the way, although large corporations often support free market
policies, they are also the first to call for special protections and
subsidies for themselves. They are the largest contributors to political
campaigns in the U.S. This is unlikely to be  because they expect the
politicians to support free trade.

-- 
Pat Gunning, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
Web pages on Subjectivism, Democracy, Taiwan, Ludwig von Mises,
Austrian Economics, and my University Classes
http://www2.cybercities.com/g/gunning/welcome.htm
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/barclay/212/welcome.htm