tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1944002802353580378.post3363744726680558143..comments2023-09-21T06:34:36.554-07:00Comments on The Ethical Economist: The Metamorphose of the CrisisAndrea Mairatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12535736857863598552noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1944002802353580378.post-36989300243741509182014-05-03T00:21:03.017-07:002014-05-03T00:21:03.017-07:00Your quote reveals that either you didn't read...Your quote reveals that either you didn't read the entire thing or you didn't understand it. Here's the punchline...<br /><br />"A revolution of the greatest importance to the public happiness was in this manner brought about by two different orders of people who had not the least intention to serve the public."<br /><br />The goal of a bakery owner isn't to serve the public...it's to get rich. But getting rich requires serving the public. Markets work because serving the public is the means to a very desirable end. So it's a win win system. The public gets served because the bakery owner wants to get rich. <br /><br />If wealth is not evenly distributed...then it's because some people are better than others at serving the public. Do you think some bloggers are better than others at serving the public? Do you think it's fair that Noah Smith has far more followers than either of us? Do you think it's fair that Paul Krugman has far more space in the New York times than either of us? <br /><br />Of course, in some cases, the distribution of wealth reflects the fact that some wealthy business owners limit competition by lobbying for the creation of government regulations that raise the barriers to entry. In order to solve this problem we have to <a href="http://pragmatarianism.blogspot.com/2014/02/clarifying-demand-for-public-goods.html" rel="nofollow">clarify the demand for public goods</a>. Xerographicahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14978832439622230018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1944002802353580378.post-77572934549741638122014-05-02T23:31:04.232-07:002014-05-02T23:31:04.232-07:00The problem is financial capitalism and over conce...The problem is financial capitalism and over concentration of wealth not the market economy. I quote Adam Smith (Book III, Chap. 24)<br />"But what all the violence of the feudal institutions could never have effected, the silent and insensible operation of foreign commerce and manufactures gradually brought about. These gradually furnished the great proprietors with something for which they could exchange the whole surplus produce of their lands, and which they could consume themselves without sharing it either with tenants or retainers. All for ourselves and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind. As soon, therefore, as they could find a method of consuming the whole value of their rents themselves, they had no disposition to share them with any other persons"Andrea Mairatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12535736857863598552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1944002802353580378.post-16650560910841467682014-03-05T04:40:46.421-08:002014-03-05T04:40:46.421-08:00Perhaps you should reread the Wealth Of Nations. ...Perhaps you should reread the Wealth Of Nations. You seemed to have missed a few things..<br /><br />"What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can employ, and of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest value, every individual, it is evident, can, in his local situation, judge much better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for him. The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it."<br /><br />...and...<br /><br />"The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often incumbers its operations."<br /><br />...and...<br /><br />"Where wages are not regulated by law, all that we can pretend to determine is what are the most usual; and experience seems to show that law can never regulate them properly, though it has often pretended to do so."<br /><br />Shall I continue? <br /><br />Right now we don't know what the demand is for public goods. How closely do you think the current supply of public goods matches the unknown demand? <br /><br />Maybe you think you can go to the grocery store and expect that the employees there will be able to divine what you will put in your grocery cart? Maybe a waiter at a restaurant will be able to divine what you will order? Maybe you were able to divine that I was going to reply to this post of yours? <br /><br />The cause of this crises and the multitude to follow is that government planners do not come even close to accurately divining the demand for any goods. They can't divine the optimal supply of milk yet you believe that they divine the optimal supply of war, infrastructure and regulation. <br /><br />I might be wrong though. I'd definitely be interested in reading anything which leads you to believe that government planners can accurately determine the demand for public goods. Xerographicahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14978832439622230018noreply@blogger.com