Harry, You are a remarkable guy and you seem to miss the point a lot. Why do you think I put 'quotes' around free market in my response to Keith?! I listened to the editor of the Wall Street Journal being interviewed by Bill Moyers on PBS' 'Now' public affairs programme last friday night at 9:00 pm EST.( a great show - it sounds really strange to hear any real discussion about current events on tv). Moyers was trying to get the guy to admit that the Enron scandal suggested something was rotten in the state of Texas (U$). The guy squirmed and talked about democracy , free markets, capitalism, liberty , the pursuit of happiness, motherhood and apple pie (or was that American pie part 1 & 2?). MY POINT IS, HARRY, HE IS A TRUE BELIEVER!! AS BLIND A FUNDAMENTALIST AS YOU COULD FIND IN WACO TEXAS.
TAKE CARE, HARRY >>Hi Keith, >> > >>After Enron how can we have any faith in these earnings reports? >>Also re the decline of the American Empire: will they decline >>peacefully or might their arsenal of nuclear weapons, chemical >>weapons and biological weapons come into 'play'. True believers of >>'free market' capitalism might not like any other religion becoming >>trump. >> > >"Free Market capitalism" is an oxymoron, you know like "military >intelligence" and suchlike. > >There is a "free market" and there is "capitalism". > >Capitalism is called in economics a "mixed economy". It should be >called a mixed up economy. > >In the US, the free market - what is left of it - works, which is >why Europeans who come to California look at the low prices and >their eyes bulge. I remember one visitor from Leeds in the UK going >around K-Mart on her last day, filling a shopping cart to the >gunwales with all kinds of things to take home. > >So, the free market helps the customer and every single one of us is >a customer. > >Capitalism doesn't. Costco in Los Angeles, like other discounters >across the US, sells price-fixed milk to it's customers. Then, it >found that over the mountain in the San Joaquin Valley, the fixed >price for milk was appreciably lower. > >So, it sent trucks over the mountain, picked up loads of milk and >brought it back to Los Angeles, where it was able to sell milk much >cheaper to happy consumers. > >Of course capitalism couldn't allow that, for capitalism is >interested in producers not consumers. > >Under threat of prosecution, Costco went back to higher priced local >milk (the same milk of course). > >This sums up the difference between capitalism that you favor - >unless you prefer socialism which, in practice, is little different >from capitalism - and the free market. > >In free market California, last year the legislature passed only 3 >laws a day. The previous year they passed almost 4 laws a day. It's >true that if California were a separate country, it would be perhaps >5th or 6th in the world - but does it really need some 1,400 laws a >year? > >It does under capitalism. And all those laws don't work. But, I >suppose they must be passed to keep the politicians in perks. > >The free market is the absence of regulation of the market. The >price control mechanism' negative feedback keeps returning prices to >equilibrium. It does this impersonally, reacting only to the >people's wishes. > >Put 'regulations' in its place and you turn the decision making over >to impersonal, altruistic, politicians. > >Lot's of luck! > >Harry >___________________________________ > > > > > > > > > > > >****************************** >Harry Pollard >Henry George School of LA >Box 655 >Tujunga CA 91042 >Tel: (818) 352-4141 >Fax: (818) 353-2242 >******************************* -- ************************************************** * Brian McAndrews, Practicum Coordinator * * Faculty of Education, Queen's University * * Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6 * * FAX:(613) 533-6596 Phone (613) 533-6000x74937* * e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * "Education is not the filling of a pail, * * but the lighting of a fire. * * W.B.Yeats * * * **************************************************
