On Sat, February 15, 1997 at 11:29:17 (PST) Robin Hahnel writes:
>[...]
>But in a much more important sense markets mis-price goods because of
>extensive external effects, and provide incentives for profit maximizers
>to externalize costs as much as it provides them incentives to improve
>product quality.
I'm not terribly familiar with the specifics of this argument. Could
you provide me/us with a few simple examples of such "external effects"
and how profit maximizers (anyone producing for sale in a capitalist
economy?) externalize these costs?
>And then there is the problem that the behavioral roles that markets
>force us to play are hardly the kind of lesson we hope our children
>learn in play school -- that is equitable cooperation -- rather than
>advancing our own interests at the expense of others.
Well spoken. I've been thinking about the notion of aggression in our
society, lately. Could we say the very heart of our society is based
on the principle of aggression, such as that inherent in extending the
notion of property (I differ with Proudhon, however) first to humans
themselves (slavery), then to human labor (the economically essential,
de-corporalized part of a slave)?
Bill
--
William S. Lear | Who is there that sees not that this inextricable labyrinth
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | of reasons of state was artfully invented, lest the people
| should understand their own affairs, and, understanding,
| become inclined to conduct them? ---William Godwin, 1793
