Government Rules Make Markets and Capitalism Possible
Markets, like governments, are very much social constructs. The market is a set of behaviors that is structured by rules, and many of the most important rules have been developed and enforced by government. Without these rules, our prized free-market economy would be a stunted and feeble version of what we see today. To see how this is the case, lets looks at these essential “rules” – the vast infrastructure of laws and policies that make a modern capitalist economy possible.
That is not entirely true.
There were free-markets that worked, long before we had bridges and roads. They were all perfectly functional and growing, without any of the infrastructure you claim is so required.
Now there are cases where infrastructure can increase economic growth, but at what cost?
I would argue most of the interstate system, was largely a net loss to the country, not a net gain.
I can show you towns here in Ohio, that are all abandoned and vacant, because there were perfectly good, perfectly fine roads being used, that these towns grew up around, that were all replaced by Federal interstates. The interstate didn't add anything, it merely cost a lot of money, and killed off existing towns and infrastructure.
A great example of free-markets not needing infrastructure, would be Gujarat.
Gujarat was already widely known as the absolute poorest of all provinces in India. Few if any had roads, water, electricity, or anything. It was a no mans land of nothing.
In 2001, they were hit by a massive earthquake that completely leveled the very little they had.
The government stepped in, and create tax-free zones, and regulation free-zones. Companies could invest, and grow their businesses, with zero taxes, and almost no regulations.
Now keep in mind, they don't have roads, don't have electricity, don't have water. The companies stepped in, built train tracks, built the roads, built electrical power plants. Built water supplies. They even built an entire seaport, all funded with private dollars.
Gujarat today, is now the manufacturing capital of India. The free market worked, without a single penny of government infrastructure.
So why does that not happen here? Pretty much, companies know that the socialists in government are more than willing to spend millions of tax payer money, to fund a project for companies.
If we didn't do that, and only offered 10-year tax free investment, companies would build all the roads, tracks, bridges they needed without a penny from the tax payers.
well I generally agree but you need govt police, courts, coordination/planning/zoning for airports bridges etc.,etc.
That statement to me, is confusing two completely different issues.
On the one hand you have regulations. That would be like zoning laws.
On the other you have justice. That would be police and courts and so on.
Those are two completely different things in my book.
Justice is punishment of doing wrong. Like fraud. I can't sell you a car for $10,000, and claim it only has 200 miles on it, and a bran new engine, have you buy and drive it around the block, only to have the engine fall out, and find the odometer was rolled back 200K miles.
Nor can I just flat out kill you, and take your stuff, or break into your house collect your valuables, rape your daughter and leave.
This is law enforcement, and the institution of justice.
Regulation is not like justice at all. Regulation is, you are doing something completely legal and fine, that harms no one and violates no ones rights. But I have deemed that I don't like the way you are doing your legal thing, and so I'm going to enforce my personal preference on how you do this legal thing you do.
Back in the late 80s, my father built me a tree house. It was nothing special, but it was 10 feet up in the air.
Did it harm anyone? No. Did it violate anyone's rights? Nope. Was there anything 'unjust' or morally wrong about it? Nope.
Nevertheless, our city we lived in had a rule that you can't have a tree house that was more than a few feet off the ground. I think it was 5 or 8. The city sent us a notice we had to lower or remove the tree house.
That's regulation. It's the arbitrary controls on people's lives, without any real cause. Sure they have their millions of excuses and rationalizations. But in the end, it's nothing more than government controlling our lives.
In fact, if you look up the Arab Spring, the source of the revolt was.... regulation.
It was not a lack of justice. It was government controlling and dictating every aspect of people's lives, and it finally caused a revolution.
Mohamed Bouazizi, in Tunisia set himself on fire, sparking the Arab Spring, in 2010.
Why? Bouazizi was a street vendor. He borrowed $200, and a wheel borrow, to sell vegetables on the street. The police discovered him, and when he didn't have a permit to sell, they confiscated the wheel borrow and all his produce.
Faced with no possible way to make a living, he went to the police station to plead for his stuff back, and when he didn't get it, set himself on fire.
He wasn't harming anyone. He was selling them food. He didn't violate anyone's rights. He was a legal citizen, doing a legal job, without a permit. The permit, is regulation.
When we on the right, the conservatives, talk about less government, less controlling our lives, this right here is what we're talking about.
I have not seen a conservative yet, stand up and say "I want less government. Lets cut the police and courts".
Never seen that. If anything, we support more police, more law enforcement, stronger penalties for breaking the law.
And equally, when we want to cut the budget, we're not talking about those things.
At the Federal level, justice, courts, law enforcement, is a mere fraction of the budget. Barely even significant. According to the 2013 budget, Dept. of Justice, was $16 Billion, and Dept of Homeland Security, was $39 Billion, and a good chunk of that includes international, rather than domestic law enforcement. So $55 Billion dollars, and the Federal Budget was $3,770 Billion.
Let's shave off that $3 Trillion, double law enforcement, and we'll still have Trillions of dollars left over in surplus money to pay off debt.
