4 ms·
"The General Market's mechanisms are always operating - even when governments like to believe they've overruled it. For guns and bombs and red tape and regulati
by snikeris 4y ago
"The General Market's mechanisms are always operating - even when governments like to believe they've overruled it. For guns and bombs and red tape and regulations can only obstruct a consumer's quest for what he wants; they can never destroy his insatiable desire to improve his life and enjoy greater mental well-being.
The self-interest of each human being, his continual search for whatever he wants, is a natural law. Governments can make it difficult for him, but their roadblocks only cause him to seek other avenues in order to get what he wants.
As a result, the General Market will always triumph eventually whenever there's a conflict between consumer desires and government interference. And it's vitally important to understand this. For it's the reassertion of the market's sovereignty as the ruler of the world that's causing today's economic upheavals."
- Harry Browne 1974 (but just as relevant today).
- disintegore 4y agoThis looks like an appeal to nature, concerning a form of conduct that could just as well be conditioned in individuals. It also seems to place the government in direct opposition with the wants of consumers, without acknowledging at all the fact that markets are just as often made unfree by the actions of its private actors.
- snikeris 4y ago> the fact that markets are just as often made unfree by the actions of its private actors. Example please.
- disintegore 4y agoThere are countless examples of anticompetitive conduct going all the way back to prehistory. The legal vocabulary around it pretty extensive. Since this is HN though maybe these will ring a bell : * Intel's rebate program (https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2010/08/ftc-settles-charges-anticompetitive-conduct-against-intel https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2010/08/...) which ended up with a $1.2B payment to AMD * Microsoft's notorious antitrust case (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor....) * AT&T abusing its monopoly status and being broken up (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._AT%26T https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._AT%26T) Honestly this is such an obvious notion that the fact that you're asking for examples is suspect on its own.
- andrekandre 4y ago> The self-interest of each human being, his continual search for whatever he wants, is a natural law. it is?