We need a fair market not a free market

[Joanne98]

For the vast majority of people in the world, the so called 'free' market has delivered little but poverty. The “free market” economy is meant to deliver investment, innovation, efficiency and a trickle down prosperity. In reality it has meant privatisation - where public services suffer under profit-led management and deregulation - leaving the banks and finance sector free to gamble national economies into debt and exploitation.

In the twenty first century we have faced increased prices, cuts to our living standards, long hours and insecurity both in work, and in retirement. Here, unions suffer the most restrictive laws in Western Europe. Prosperity is increasingly seen to be reserved for the unaccountable few, who face none of the pay restraints imposed on workers and none of the regulations and burdens placed on unions. Free market capitalism has been a social, economic and environmental failure.

What the left has to do is nail the lie of the 'free' market - which means deregulation and privatisation that only benefits the rich - as we have seen. What we need is a fair market which workers can benefit from without the fruits of their labour being expropriated by capitalists. The right have expounded simplistic bullshit - like the 'free' market - and got away with it because the left haven't exposed what a fraud it is. That must now change.

The 'free' market right have also always said that we couldn't afford to re-nationalise utilities, railways etc. Now, having seen the vast sums invested recently in propping up the banks, we all know that is not true. We need to show people that an alternative economy is not only possible but achievable. That alternative needs to be a mix of state ownership and mutualism - to give people a real stake in the economy and their future.

We need to begin by explaining the benefits of public ownership as a fair market alternative to free market capitalism. People understand they have been had. The events of the past year, and in particular the last few weeks have given us an opportunity to get that message across that we haven't had for at least a generation.

One consequence of all this is the beginning of the end of America as a dominant global economic and military force. The very people who wanted this to be the American Century - the neo-liberals - have brought their country down. This was very well summed up on an article by John Gray in the Observer. The geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting as I write this, and the American dream is becoming a nightmare.

Postscript: I have just read on the BBC that the House of Representatives has voted down the bail out plan which makes the crisis potentially all the more acute.


Posted by Howard Thorp at 19:04

http://capitalism-creates-poverty.blogspot.com/2008/09/we-need-fair-market-not-free-market.html

[Cal_Alum]

1. Exactly!

I've been thinking for weeks that the correct response is to push for a FAIR market, not a FREE market. Let's see if we can get this picked up by the MSM and into common lingo.

[Waiting For Everyman]

2. Yes! That toxic philosophy has to die. FAIR markets is right!

The banks' terms are what have damaged Main Street - the goose that lays the golden eggs. We need fair terms on an individual level too. The one-sided robbery has to stop. At some point (this point) it is unsustainable and impossible. Usury limits, bankruptcy reform, credit score reform, all of it. And speculation, shorting, derivatives, all of that needs to end.

I think the basic necessities of life should be state-owned assets and cost nearly nothing... roads and transportation, universities, hospitals, utilities. Otherwise, poor people have no chance. If the basics are low-cost or free, upward mobility and entrepreneurship is possible. That causes a lot of growth, as it did in the mid-1960s.

The top needs to pay progressively higher taxes, until excess incomes don't exist as a practical reality, with an alternative minimum on corporations. And the minimum wage has to support ACTUAL subsistence (and become global or at least equalized in trade). I don't think the bottom tier should be taxed at all - they need a chance to climb the ladder, and they pay taxes anyway (sales, gas, communications, fica, etc.).

The case needs to be made, yes. Over and over until it sinks in. (This is a time for liberal writers to "do their thing".) But it is right and in conformity with reality. This ideological pillaging is destructive.

There's no need to reinvent the wheel very much. We had a better way of life once and a system that worked and was fair, and we had these problems contained, all we have to do is look at that model and update it. We need a 21st century New Deal. It worked very well before, and we should've stuck with it.

[tama]

3. And let's remember

it's not fair to put man over the rest of the nature.

Let's be carefulll out there!