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?
does it make sense to talk about the government as a single heading for the following?
ReplyDeleteHere'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.
We also have to consider how any government rises to power... Unstable much?
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