218011 responses to “What about the free market?”http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldinconversation.org%2F2010%2F04%2F23%2Fwhat-about-the-free-market%2FWhat+about+the+free+market%3F2010-04-23+04%3A53%3A32Sam+Richardshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.racerelationsproject.org%2F%3Fp%3D2180
I think the reason most people didn't raise their hand was because many of us may not know exactly what free market capitalism is. I for one, have a difficult time understanding economic concepts, and while I knew what a free market was, I didn't raise my hand out of fear that I'd be called on to explain free market capitalism or something. Anyways, I think this perhaps was the case for many people in the class. If not, I would definitely like to know why anyone would be against a free market. To me it's a very sensible system… both producers of goods and consumers are determining prices of goods. I guess things can get iffy in a recession and people are wary about spending money, which screws with the market. But honestly, I don't know enough about economics and the like to really discuss it confidently.
I doubt what Sam said in the class. To be frank I don't think he really understands the idea of free market. Free market is a highly ideally mechanism that it almost can't be used as a single economy mechanism in reality. The problem is, without government control, the market would push to the other extreme–that market will be manually operated and not running as what economists think it would. Think about the great depression, it is considered as a result of overly free marketing capitalism. Before the depression, the United States and all the western countries put "Wealth of Nations" and its followers at a godlike place. They indeed believed that market would balance everything. It came out that the government control is not only needed, but also as a very crucial node in the country's business machine. Without the little help from the government, the US wouldn't achieve its balance. From the dialectical materialism aspect, government control and the free marketing mechanism are mutually connected. They are bilaterally linked to each other, the displace of either of them would cause trouble for the entire economy. From this standpoint, I say I don't support the US government to apply purely theoretical free market mechanism.
Secondly, now what the US government is doing on immigration, is not only to block everyone outside, but to select ones who have talents, or skills that US companies need. This is a reflection of the economy's demand and supply. The US is just like all the other countries in the world, it cannot let too many people in at a time, for that will definitely cause disaster. Now the unemployment is 9.7%, if the government suddenly let say 3 million immigrants in, than the unemployment would probably increase 1 percent, which is already scary.
Thirdly, the policies of immigration is not only for the economical purposes, but also for national security purpose. Every country has its border to defend. Every country has spies in other countries. Why? For more and more information so that it would have the chance to step out first. This is another reason why the United States cannot just simply open its border. National interests are always the first target to protect. Not to mention terrorism.
The demand of companies in the United States is already a very marketing reflection for immigration, I don't understand why would we practice free market capitalism even more. It is already enough useful for most of us. This system is already running very stably and steadily. There is no real change to we need to make.
To sum up, the free market idea is and will be only and idea. It is unpractical in the practical world. It may cause a lot problems if the government really practiced it. Besides economy reasons, social and national security reasons also cannot be forgotten. Remember that a nation's interest represents its people's highest interest, which must be protected.
I honestly do not believe in the free market economy in the purest form. I think state intervention is often a necessary evil to keep corporations in line, and the most successful economies in the world use many forms of socialism to spread the wealth, and keep corporations in line. Furthermore, much of the recent recession is to be blamed on a lack of regulations, that would have limited what corporations could do. These regulations would certainly be considered to be a strain against a real free market economy. Lastly, one must also realize that a free market economy is not really free because of the classes it creates, and the benefits some will get over others. In response to the the second question, I do not think we have a true free market economy, although there are few nations that come closer. Our lack of taxes, and lack of social programs makes America one of the more truly capitalist societies in the world, but overall we are still a mixed economy.
I believe free market economy doesn’t work is that there are some public sectors that privatization does not work so effectively. In terms of goods, some private products such as soda or an automobile, it is good to let private companies take the charge since the competition would result better products with lower price. However, something like police resources or fire stations should be provided by the government since a nation stands there to protect its citizens. They cannot get security due to the lack of the money would be a disaster and a tragedy. Furthermore, I don’t think we have worse economy system, yet another improvement can be made. Medical insurance privatization, in my opinion, should be provided by the government. I know this one proverb famous among immigrants. The best way to save money is being healthy.
The only way to promote a “free market” capitalist society in our country is to pay the same workers and the same wages that we have been for years and years. I think this has only recently become an issue due to the economic troubles we have here in the United States. How do you think we are able to pay for the goods we do at a cheap and low price? As Sam has pointed out in lecture we buy a pineapple for two dollars because there are workers out there that are willing to accept that wage. As much as I want these people to be able to obtain legal citizenship here in the United States and be a part of our country it’s just the way our system works. A lot of us wouldn’t be here going to college if it wasn’t for the so called “illegal” immigrants that work for low wages and help our economy in ways that many people do not realize. This is just the way things work and I don’t think free market capitalism can work in another way even though it may seem that it should be changed.
These are some difficult questions to answer seeing as I don’t have a sound economics background, but I do have a few things to say. I think the capitalist system has many downfalls, especially in the way in which it creates a class-based system focused on competition and self-survival. I feel like currently too many people suffer unnecessarily in order to support a few rich that over-consumer unnecessarily. I think some sort of balance needs to be found between a capitalist system and one which provides a great amount of social services to ensure greater equality and opportunity, both within and across nations.
On the topic of capitalism and immigration, I felt that Sam somewhat contradicted himself in the ways that he spoke about slavery in the global market and immigrant workers in the domestic market. I understand that slavery is a completely different topic and a much more severe form of human oppression, but the working conditions and pay of many immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, is not exactly “fair “ either. After all, the video that we watched at the end of class on Tuesday was meant to make us think of immigrants in a different way, and it showed the very poor and painful side of immigration. But throughout the class, Sam seemed to laugh off the issues of immigrant workers and say everything was because of capitalism. He even gave the example that he’s going to buy cheap fruit picked by low-paid workers; that’s just the way capitalism works. But the lecture a few weeks ago on slavery took on a much more solemn tone. But isn’t slavery a result of global capitalism too? Global competition creates a “race to the bottom” as companies need to continue producing products at cheaper and cheaper prices. Yet Sam was much more condescending and somber when discussing the chocolate industry and slavery, but seemed to laugh and make light of the fruit industry in which immigrant workers are paid very low wages. Yes, these two topics may differ in their severity and level of injustice, but both still seem unfair. In our last lecture on Thursday Sam went on and on about the Golden Rule in which we should treat others how we wish to be treated and not partake in actions that harm others. And both slavery and the working conditions of immigration seem to be positioned in such a way within the capitalist system that our consuming behaviors do in fact harm others by pushing them into low-wage, hard labor, or slave labor jobs.
I know Sam talked about a lot of other things and the immigration lecture talked about many other issues besides just “cheap labor”, but I went home that day feeling a strong contradiction in the manner in which Sam spoke about immigrant labor within the capitalist system, as compared to the way in which he had approached slavery within the global capitalist system.
I think that the free market question is particularly difficult at this time in American history. We have just emerged from a recession caused by a rampant market with little control and people are probably hesitant to dive back into that mechanism. As an alternative, I think more government control is probably helpful. People tend to think that either capitalism or communism are the only ways of looking at large scale economies, but it seems the answer is probably hazier than that. Odds are that the best way to run an economy falls between those two systems. This seems to be what America is moving toward with the National Healthcare.
Having a free market is a great system to have after you’ve used more of a closed/ neo-mercantilism type of government to climb to the top, which the US has. If you look into history you will see that England, when it had the largest economy and was considered the world super power, also used a free market system. However, using it for an extended period of time resulted in their economic demise. The failure of their free market system was partly because they had to “play by all the rules” of international trade and were not allowed to have government subsidies on exported goods. England were forced to play by all the rules even when other countries weren’t because in order to recruit other nations to join them in a free market system they had to remain true to their own theory. In addition to the restrictions they had as the superpower, England gave away many of their trade secrets to other countries in exchange for cheaper goods. This resulted in England loosing their comparative advantage in many goods and industries that were considered staples to their economy. Their free market system acted as a catalyst in them loosing their advantage and it looks like the US may be the next in line.
If you look at all the different industries that the US used to look at as being at least close to exclusive in the US, automobiles, airplanes, the technology sector, etc. you will see that many of these are now dominated by other nations, most notably by China. This is a result of US industries agreeing to give away many of their trade secrets in exchange for cheap land, tax exemptions and labor. Although that allowed the US to buy more for less it also let one of the biggest and most dangerous upcoming economies in on many of the human capital we used to keep to ourselves. The shift of these high capital and important industries is incredibly similar to the England’s historical downfall…
So when you ask the question of whether or not the free market is a good system.. Yes I would say it is for the 50 years that as a country you can spend and consume beyond your means and get away with it. But when all the other countries that are saving, investing, and inventing end up catching up with you the free market system no longer seems so glamorous. It is time to operate with a little bit more of a closed economy so that we can go back to the system that made our country such an incredible place to live.
I don’t have that much background regarding economics so what I have to say is pretty basic and simple. The United States economy took a pretty big hit when the stock market collapsed in 1929 causing us the Great Depression. One of the main factors causing this crash was this idea of having a “free market” and the assumption that the free market will take care of itself. The problem is when the market is given no such regulation and absolutely no government intervention, everything gets out of hand and the system eventually fails. This is what happened in the 1920’s and this is almost the same exact situation that our economy, once again, finds itself in seventy or so something years later when the risky lending practices of banks surfaced in 2008.
The idea of letting “the free market take care of itself” has left us with banks failing left and right and multi-billion dollar corporations going bankrupt as a result of no governmental regulation. So if asked the question of whether or not free market capitalism is a good thing, I would argue that no, it’s not a good thing. Based on this country’s historical facts concerning its economy, I do not think it’s a good idea. However, I also do not believe in total government control of the economy. There’s a reason why the United States is known to be such a free and democratic country and if total control of the economy is given to the government, I believe that it would cause just as much problems. Economic control should be balanced between the government and the market itself.
I believe that some government regulation is necessary in order to prevent the system from inevitably causing its own failure or dipping into another recession. A sense of control and regulation between the government and the economy would do all of us some good so that there’s a sense of barrier that stops or controls our financial institutions of taking advantage of the system. I think that it is especially hard to discuss this topic of free market or any topic concerning our current economic state. There are still thousands and thousands of Americans losing their jobs every day and being forced to still somehow put food on the table with such limited means. However, I will say though, that since the 2008 financial crisis things have improved. Its level of improvement definitely hasn’t reached its full capacity just yet but I think that things are definitely looking a bit better now than it was two years ago now that some governmental regulation has been put into place. It’s always easier to look on the negative side of things but I think given a bit more time, the U.S. economy will definitely pick itself back up and become as dominant as it once was.
I think the reason most people didn't raise their hand was because many of us may not know exactly what free market capitalism is. I for one, have a difficult time understanding economic concepts, and while I knew what a free market was, I didn't raise my hand out of fear that I'd be called on to explain free market capitalism or something. Anyways, I think this perhaps was the case for many people in the class. If not, I would definitely like to know why anyone would be against a free market. To me it's a very sensible system… both producers of goods and consumers are determining prices of goods. I guess things can get iffy in a recession and people are wary about spending money, which screws with the market. But honestly, I don't know enough about economics and the like to really discuss it confidently.
I doubt what Sam said in the class. To be frank I don't think he really understands the idea of free market. Free market is a highly ideally mechanism that it almost can't be used as a single economy mechanism in reality. The problem is, without government control, the market would push to the other extreme–that market will be manually operated and not running as what economists think it would. Think about the great depression, it is considered as a result of overly free marketing capitalism. Before the depression, the United States and all the western countries put "Wealth of Nations" and its followers at a godlike place. They indeed believed that market would balance everything. It came out that the government control is not only needed, but also as a very crucial node in the country's business machine. Without the little help from the government, the US wouldn't achieve its balance. From the dialectical materialism aspect, government control and the free marketing mechanism are mutually connected. They are bilaterally linked to each other, the displace of either of them would cause trouble for the entire economy. From this standpoint, I say I don't support the US government to apply purely theoretical free market mechanism.
Secondly, now what the US government is doing on immigration, is not only to block everyone outside, but to select ones who have talents, or skills that US companies need. This is a reflection of the economy's demand and supply. The US is just like all the other countries in the world, it cannot let too many people in at a time, for that will definitely cause disaster. Now the unemployment is 9.7%, if the government suddenly let say 3 million immigrants in, than the unemployment would probably increase 1 percent, which is already scary.
Thirdly, the policies of immigration is not only for the economical purposes, but also for national security purpose. Every country has its border to defend. Every country has spies in other countries. Why? For more and more information so that it would have the chance to step out first. This is another reason why the United States cannot just simply open its border. National interests are always the first target to protect. Not to mention terrorism.
The demand of companies in the United States is already a very marketing reflection for immigration, I don't understand why would we practice free market capitalism even more. It is already enough useful for most of us. This system is already running very stably and steadily. There is no real change to we need to make.
To sum up, the free market idea is and will be only and idea. It is unpractical in the practical world. It may cause a lot problems if the government really practiced it. Besides economy reasons, social and national security reasons also cannot be forgotten. Remember that a nation's interest represents its people's highest interest, which must be protected.
I honestly do not believe in the free market economy in the purest form. I think state intervention is often a necessary evil to keep corporations in line, and the most successful economies in the world use many forms of socialism to spread the wealth, and keep corporations in line. Furthermore, much of the recent recession is to be blamed on a lack of regulations, that would have limited what corporations could do. These regulations would certainly be considered to be a strain against a real free market economy. Lastly, one must also realize that a free market economy is not really free because of the classes it creates, and the benefits some will get over others. In response to the the second question, I do not think we have a true free market economy, although there are few nations that come closer. Our lack of taxes, and lack of social programs makes America one of the more truly capitalist societies in the world, but overall we are still a mixed economy.
I believe free market economy doesn’t work is that there are some public sectors that privatization does not work so effectively. In terms of goods, some private products such as soda or an automobile, it is good to let private companies take the charge since the competition would result better products with lower price. However, something like police resources or fire stations should be provided by the government since a nation stands there to protect its citizens. They cannot get security due to the lack of the money would be a disaster and a tragedy. Furthermore, I don’t think we have worse economy system, yet another improvement can be made. Medical insurance privatization, in my opinion, should be provided by the government. I know this one proverb famous among immigrants. The best way to save money is being healthy.
The only way to promote a “free market” capitalist society in our country is to pay the same workers and the same wages that we have been for years and years. I think this has only recently become an issue due to the economic troubles we have here in the United States. How do you think we are able to pay for the goods we do at a cheap and low price? As Sam has pointed out in lecture we buy a pineapple for two dollars because there are workers out there that are willing to accept that wage. As much as I want these people to be able to obtain legal citizenship here in the United States and be a part of our country it’s just the way our system works. A lot of us wouldn’t be here going to college if it wasn’t for the so called “illegal” immigrants that work for low wages and help our economy in ways that many people do not realize. This is just the way things work and I don’t think free market capitalism can work in another way even though it may seem that it should be changed.
These are some difficult questions to answer seeing as I don’t have a sound economics background, but I do have a few things to say. I think the capitalist system has many downfalls, especially in the way in which it creates a class-based system focused on competition and self-survival. I feel like currently too many people suffer unnecessarily in order to support a few rich that over-consumer unnecessarily. I think some sort of balance needs to be found between a capitalist system and one which provides a great amount of social services to ensure greater equality and opportunity, both within and across nations.
On the topic of capitalism and immigration, I felt that Sam somewhat contradicted himself in the ways that he spoke about slavery in the global market and immigrant workers in the domestic market. I understand that slavery is a completely different topic and a much more severe form of human oppression, but the working conditions and pay of many immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, is not exactly “fair “ either. After all, the video that we watched at the end of class on Tuesday was meant to make us think of immigrants in a different way, and it showed the very poor and painful side of immigration. But throughout the class, Sam seemed to laugh off the issues of immigrant workers and say everything was because of capitalism. He even gave the example that he’s going to buy cheap fruit picked by low-paid workers; that’s just the way capitalism works. But the lecture a few weeks ago on slavery took on a much more solemn tone. But isn’t slavery a result of global capitalism too? Global competition creates a “race to the bottom” as companies need to continue producing products at cheaper and cheaper prices. Yet Sam was much more condescending and somber when discussing the chocolate industry and slavery, but seemed to laugh and make light of the fruit industry in which immigrant workers are paid very low wages. Yes, these two topics may differ in their severity and level of injustice, but both still seem unfair. In our last lecture on Thursday Sam went on and on about the Golden Rule in which we should treat others how we wish to be treated and not partake in actions that harm others. And both slavery and the working conditions of immigration seem to be positioned in such a way within the capitalist system that our consuming behaviors do in fact harm others by pushing them into low-wage, hard labor, or slave labor jobs.
I know Sam talked about a lot of other things and the immigration lecture talked about many other issues besides just “cheap labor”, but I went home that day feeling a strong contradiction in the manner in which Sam spoke about immigrant labor within the capitalist system, as compared to the way in which he had approached slavery within the global capitalist system.
I think that the free market question is particularly difficult at this time in American history. We have just emerged from a recession caused by a rampant market with little control and people are probably hesitant to dive back into that mechanism. As an alternative, I think more government control is probably helpful. People tend to think that either capitalism or communism are the only ways of looking at large scale economies, but it seems the answer is probably hazier than that. Odds are that the best way to run an economy falls between those two systems. This seems to be what America is moving toward with the National Healthcare.
Having a free market is a great system to have after you’ve used more of a closed/ neo-mercantilism type of government to climb to the top, which the US has. If you look into history you will see that England, when it had the largest economy and was considered the world super power, also used a free market system. However, using it for an extended period of time resulted in their economic demise. The failure of their free market system was partly because they had to “play by all the rules” of international trade and were not allowed to have government subsidies on exported goods. England were forced to play by all the rules even when other countries weren’t because in order to recruit other nations to join them in a free market system they had to remain true to their own theory. In addition to the restrictions they had as the superpower, England gave away many of their trade secrets to other countries in exchange for cheaper goods. This resulted in England loosing their comparative advantage in many goods and industries that were considered staples to their economy. Their free market system acted as a catalyst in them loosing their advantage and it looks like the US may be the next in line.
If you look at all the different industries that the US used to look at as being at least close to exclusive in the US, automobiles, airplanes, the technology sector, etc. you will see that many of these are now dominated by other nations, most notably by China. This is a result of US industries agreeing to give away many of their trade secrets in exchange for cheap land, tax exemptions and labor. Although that allowed the US to buy more for less it also let one of the biggest and most dangerous upcoming economies in on many of the human capital we used to keep to ourselves. The shift of these high capital and important industries is incredibly similar to the England’s historical downfall…
So when you ask the question of whether or not the free market is a good system.. Yes I would say it is for the 50 years that as a country you can spend and consume beyond your means and get away with it. But when all the other countries that are saving, investing, and inventing end up catching up with you the free market system no longer seems so glamorous. It is time to operate with a little bit more of a closed economy so that we can go back to the system that made our country such an incredible place to live.
I don’t have that much background regarding economics so what I have to say is pretty basic and simple. The United States economy took a pretty big hit when the stock market collapsed in 1929 causing us the Great Depression. One of the main factors causing this crash was this idea of having a “free market” and the assumption that the free market will take care of itself. The problem is when the market is given no such regulation and absolutely no government intervention, everything gets out of hand and the system eventually fails. This is what happened in the 1920’s and this is almost the same exact situation that our economy, once again, finds itself in seventy or so something years later when the risky lending practices of banks surfaced in 2008.
The idea of letting “the free market take care of itself” has left us with banks failing left and right and multi-billion dollar corporations going bankrupt as a result of no governmental regulation. So if asked the question of whether or not free market capitalism is a good thing, I would argue that no, it’s not a good thing. Based on this country’s historical facts concerning its economy, I do not think it’s a good idea. However, I also do not believe in total government control of the economy. There’s a reason why the United States is known to be such a free and democratic country and if total control of the economy is given to the government, I believe that it would cause just as much problems. Economic control should be balanced between the government and the market itself.
I believe that some government regulation is necessary in order to prevent the system from inevitably causing its own failure or dipping into another recession. A sense of control and regulation between the government and the economy would do all of us some good so that there’s a sense of barrier that stops or controls our financial institutions of taking advantage of the system. I think that it is especially hard to discuss this topic of free market or any topic concerning our current economic state. There are still thousands and thousands of Americans losing their jobs every day and being forced to still somehow put food on the table with such limited means. However, I will say though, that since the 2008 financial crisis things have improved. Its level of improvement definitely hasn’t reached its full capacity just yet but I think that things are definitely looking a bit better now than it was two years ago now that some governmental regulation has been put into place. It’s always easier to look on the negative side of things but I think given a bit more time, the U.S. economy will definitely pick itself back up and become as dominant as it once was.