Prometheus 6: Stuck

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March 09, 2004

Stuck

Have you ever had a thought that insisted on being expressed but refused to settle down into a form that's easy to write?

With all the economics stuff I've been reading, I think I've developed a feel for what's so convincing about the free market argument. I'm coming to feel that, once you've set your priorities, the free market may well be the best way to handle the rest of the stuff.

Yet I'm also feeling Conservatives and Libertarians have destroyed any chance of a free society developing as a result of free markets within my lifetime. Conservatives and Libertarians don't actually trust the free market enough to let it develop rather than forcing things. I think the situation is best described by one of my favorite Zen koans:

Joshu asked Nansen, "What is the Buddha?"
Nansen said, "This very mind is Buddha."
Joshu asked, "How can I accord with it?"
Nansen said, "By intending to accord, you immediately deviate."

Posted by P6 at March 9, 2004 04:54 PM
Trackback URL: http://www.niggerati.net/mt/mt-tb.cgi/761
Comments

> once you've set your priorities, the free market may well be the best way to handle the rest of the stuff.

I'm not a big Ayn Rand fan, but some of her sayings are very quotable;

"If shoe production was run by the government and people suggested to privatise it, you would hear indignant voices: "What? and only have RICH people wearing good shoes?""

Any homeless person or soldier will tell you that good shoes are a neccesity, not a luxury. Yet we are comfortable having our shoes procude by private companies.

So extrapolating, something being a priority or necessity does not preclude it being provided for by private companies.

Posted by dof at March 10, 2004 06:04 AM

"If shoe production was run by the government and people suggested to privatise it, you would hear indignant voices: "What? and only have RICH people wearing good shoes?""

Typical of Rand, her best stuff has no connection to any real situation.

So extrapolating, something being a priority or necessity does not preclude it being provided for by private companies

Okay.

Posted by P6 at March 10, 2004 11:45 AM

Tao Te Ching: Chapter 53

The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centered within the Tao.

When rich speculators prosper
While farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn-
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.

chapters 57-61 also directly apply.

Posted by DesertJo at March 10, 2004 02:15 PM

Shoes are private goods. Since the owner of the shoes captures 100% of the utility of them, the market doesn't undersupply them.

Rand's analogies are hallucinogenic.

Posted by James R MacLean at March 11, 2004 07:21 PM