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From: nrh@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: (Orphan) Re: Politics and Ethics--So
Message-ID: <28200610@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Jan-86 19:41:00 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.28200610
Posted: Thu Jan 23 19:41:00 1986
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Nf-From: inmet!nrh    Jan 23 19:41:00 1986


>/* Written  9:53 am  Jan 17, 1986 by renner@uiucdcs in inmet:net.politics.t */
>
>>  If a few people control most of the income and the wealth and most
>>  people control nothing then only the wants of the wealthy will be
>>  measured by the market.  This is one of the worst flaws of laissez 
>>  faire economics.
>>                      -- tim sevener (orb@whuts)
>
>If a few people control most of the income and wealth, then in practice
>*any* political system will cater to the wants of these people.  This
>is unavoidable.  A "free market" is no better and no worse than anything
>else in this situation.
>
>Scott Renner

Hmmmm.... I agree with Scott that any *political* system will inevitably
cater to the rich.  I don't agree that the market is a *political* system
(at least, not in the sense of having to do with government).  

A free market encourages responsiveness to everyone with money, pretty
much in proportion to the amounts of money involved.  Political
systems tend to be much less proportional, if only because the
information that can be communicated by votes, by reports, and by
law, tends to be less current (laws remain laws, even after the
situation changes, but a dip in hula-hoop popularity is met pretty
quickly with a dip in hula-hoop production), and less precise (in a
"majority rules" system, if I have 2 votes and you have one, I can
vote myself all the food all the time, but in a market, if I have $2
and you have $1, I get burgers and you get pasta) than the information
transmitted by a price system.  

Is it okay to encourage responsiveness only to money?  No, of course not, but
the market doesn't encourage responsiveness ONLY to money -- it merely
encourages responsiveness to money, while leaving people free to respond
to other forces as they choose.

The other nice aspect of the free market is that one tends to 
get money when one pleases others.  If we must have a ruling class,
let's make sure we at least get pleased by their conduct on the way up.