Monday, February 20, 2012

He Is a Liar.

I spent at least half an hour reading about why a labor-managed company does not actually command any competitive advantage. Jesus H. Christ Bob Frank what are you doing? The reason labor-managed companies are not wide spread is because skilled managers are not wide spread. This is why humans, wolves, bees, and ants have this amazing concept of division of labor. I was reading this chapter , groping for some sort of stand out or controversial thinking, and it struck me that he is just reiterating basic economic concepts at the moment. If he is trying to disagree with Adam Smith he is doing a really bad job of it, as he has affirmed many of the facts that Smith laid out in the wealth of nations. Like how it is not morally askew to assess safety with a cost-benefit analysis. Well DUH! If it was morally incorrect then everyone would be wrapped in bubble wrap, driving vehicles would be illegal, and they would make sure that all head phones were quiet so kids did not hurt their hearing. None of this is new or surprising to me, he is not pointing out anything actually wrong with Adam Smith's reasoning. I don't mean to sound bamboozled, but I have been. I don't think Frank was telling the truth when he said he disagrees with Smith, I think he only used that as an attention gainer. To me he explains Smiths invisible hand and then uses its flaws to champion light touch government regulation through taxes and incentive programs to affect market outcomes. I agree that Darwin's ideology that competition is based more on the ability to relatively consume rather than consume in general. This is why I don't really give a hoot what celebrities wear or how many islands Bill Gates owns. I do care that most people my age have cars and I do not on the other hand. This is just common sense though. Only a crazy person would try and consume more that someone they did not know or interact with. It would make no sense, thus the reason that my GPA means nothing to a Russian student who lives 4000 miles away and vice versa because we are not relative to each other in the slightest. If say this student did want to compete with me and I had no clue who he was, then all the power to that strange minded individual because it means little to nothing to me. If anyone else feels like they are not learning anything new, please speak up. I understand his ideas about governing with a light touch to nudge people in the right direction through market forces and democracy, but as for trying to tell us that he disagrees with Adam Smith, I am calling him a liar.

1 comment:

  1. That's a pretty harsh accusation. He said he disagrees with Smith as to the nature of competition itself. Smith was highly suspicious of cartels and conspiracies to constrain competition whereas Frank spent most of the chapter explaining why he does not believe this to be a justified fear; Frank sees the very nature of competition itself to be different than how Smith and his libertarian "disciples" view it.

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