Sunday, November 3, 2013

Free Markets have a good reputation

            It would seem that time and time again, examples supporting the notion of a free-market economy keep springing up. In particular are examples that demonstrate the progress that can be made when a shift from a planned or controlled economy to a freer economy is made. (I personally prefer these instead of instances where a free economy has simply always worked and a shift away from a planned economy has not occurred.) Take post-war Germany. On the West-side, price controls and other market plans restricted growth. I feel confident placing the blame on the controls because after Ludwig Erhard, then (1948) director of the Economic Administration of the UK-U.S. Bizone in West Germany, lifted the controls, the German Wonder Economy came to life. Black markets disappeared, growth commenced, and commodities returned to the shelves, no longer to be hoarded by citizens living in fear of starvation. If only India had followed suit and chose not to implement the Second Five Year Plan for the latter half of the 1950s then maybe growth would not have been stifled there. However, India moved towards control and endorsed a Permit requirement for many industries. This choice led to the integration of corruption and delays into their economy and it took many years for the necessary in economic ideology to take place. In the 1990s, India finally began the process of removing market controls and resultantly experienced an increase in economic growth.

            It puzzles me somewhat that despite so many examples, obviously not all of which are stated above, many countries and governments have operated through control of the market. I recognize that it takes time for ideals to shift and that there does exist the potential for failure in change. However, why does it seem that too many governments and people are so unwilling to endorse free-markets when stories of respective success riddle our history?

2 comments:

  1. does it make sense to talk about the government as a single heading for the following?
    Here's the list of federal government agencies:
    http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/
    Here's the list of Alaska State government agencies:
    http://alaska.gov/akdir1.html#doa

    aside from that, we also have to consider the following divisions:
    executive, judicial, legislative

    Now if that weren't confusing enough, consider private bribes and political campaign contributors.

    Just like the word love, government is far too broad a term to ever understand. I feel your pain.

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  2. We also have to consider how any government rises to power... Unstable much?

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