At 09:45 AM 2/17/97 -0800, Jim wrote: >In addition to the issue of external costs & benefits, Robin >Hahnel is onto something that Kenneth Arrow noted a long time >ago: >"Under the system of a free market, such feelings [social values, >the ordering of social states according to moral standards] play >no direct part in social choice... The market mechanism... takes >into account only the ordering according to tastes [the ordering >according to the direct consumption by the individual]." (SOCIAL >CHOICE AND INDIVIDUAL VALUES, 1963: p. 18). Social preferences, >like feelings of solidarity, cannot be expressed in an atomized >market setting. And more recently, Soros of all people said something quite similar; for an interesting, somewhat bizarre read, check out the latest Atlantic. Among other things, Soros admits that (surprise!) simply unleashing capitalism in Eastern Europe failed miserably, and he says that unfettered laissez-faire policies may destroy our society. Not exactly a shocker for folks here, but it's fun to have someone like Soros to smack Right-wingers over the head. Anders Schneiderman Progressive Communications
