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> The problem is that everything has a price. No, the problem is that everything has a relative value and someone needs to figure out what that value is. In fr
by humanrebar 11y ago
> The problem is that everything has a price.
No, the problem is that everything has a relative value and someone needs to figure out what that value is. In free-market capitalist societies (and I'd argue in the other ones as well), money serves as an important heuristic for value.
More concretely, do we, as a society, produce more fuel efficient cars or do we produce electric ones? In a free market, it's clear the one that sells will be produced. In a controlled economy, the process is murkier and runs through bureaucracies (and therefore lobbyists) and possibly lawmakers (and therefore more lobbyists).
So free market capitalism is really a form of crowd-sourced decision-making. Alternatives would need to invent a working model that can prioritize (in the face of difficult facts, even) in an egalitarian way, balancing the needs of different interests.
I read through the linked page. I didn't see anything describing how that would work, even in the Chomsky link.
- pastProlog 11y agoIt is a strange thing to use cars as an example of a free market. The government just bailed out the auto industry. The government bailed out Chrysler with loans and government contracts in the 1970s as well. The auto industry lobbied for and got massive public subsidies for highway and road construction, while lobbying against mass transit, or just smashing it like GM did with NCL. Not to mention the federal government reviving Depression-racked Detroit's fortunes when the industrial plants began having tanks roll out during WWII. The auto industry never wanted to operate in a "free market".
- humanrebar 11y agoI wouldn't claim that the car market is especially free either. You could replace car with "widget" if you'd like.