> Ray Evans Harrell wrote:
>
> Steve,
>
> I guess what Harry and the rest would say to this is that it is not
> truly a free market place.
[snip]
If, as Kurt Godel supposedly proved (I'd like to understand
the proof, but it's a bit beyond me...), any system -- even
pure abstraction (what can be generated by thinking of
nothing as "something" and not making any other metaphysical
or empirical assumptions...) -- if pushed far enough
gets into para-logical trouble, and if we also recall
Kant's paralogisms of Pure Reason (the universe must have a
beginning, no it can't, yes it must,...) --
then it seems
clear that there is little hope of finding
a 100% free market place. I have a great deal of
conceptual difficulty with the introduction of
*laws* and *police* into the market system, since
it is obvious that they constrain trade in formidable
ways.... And "things" get worse from there....
But if we explore what Habermas would call the
transcendental pragmatics (the necessary conditions...)
for that form of interpersonal relationship called
free exchange of goods and services, then perhaps
we can get somewhere, like for instance that no
person who does not control (AKA "own") the requisites
to exercise his or her skills (AKA "the means of production")
is logically capable of participating in free
exchange of goods and services in his or her
society's economy.
It seems to me that a "free market" would
pretty much rule out the employer-employee relation,
just like it rules out the master-slave relation.
So what do we want to call that form of social organization
in which most persons belong to a "working class" and
a few control the means of production?
It seems to
me that a society in which free exchange is the
salient and enduring form of interpersonal relations
must treat economic competition as an object of
overarching social oversight, i.e., that everyone
would continually be *restraining* competition -->
which, of course, does not necessarily mean
*eliminating* **all** competition. What would
we want to call such a form of social
organization in which capitalism had been
made safe for humanity?
"Yours in discourse...."
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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