Raghu writes: >> In some very simple activities like buying a car or voting a >> superficial distinction between market and politics can be maintained. >> >> At a very basic level a market cannot exist without a "quality >> functioning political system". The Austrian school certainly >> acknowledges this. In the Austrian view the political process sets and >> enforces the rules of the game and the market process determines the >> outcome. But it fails to recognize two things. >> 1) There is no single natural set of "rules of the game". They are >> determined in entirely arbitrary ways. The political process can and >> does change the rules constantly. >> 2) The market process is not just passively influenced by, but also >> actively influences the political process. It is worth noting that the >> political process is influenced by both capital and labor interests. >> >> Thus the political and market process are interlinked in a dynamic >> feedback process and cannot be separated. In the US this influence is >> quite explicit in the form of lobbying groups (capital&labor), >> campaign donations (capital) and personnel turnover between industry >> and government (particularly the so-called revolving door between >> regulatory agencies and industry). >> >> It is not that the Austrians deny these linkages but they >> systematically deemphasize their importance so as to maintain the >> ideological fiction of a separation between poltics and the market. It >> is not an accurate picture of the world and leads to wrong-headed >> conclusions.
While I disagree with a lot of what you say, I want to point out that you have moved from a "failure to recognize" the interrelationship to a "deemphasis" of the interrelationship. Maybe if we keep on talking you will move from "deemphasis" to "overemphasis." There is a big difference between ignorance of an issue and disagreement with an issue. As I said before, libertarians are consumed with the interrelationship. Yes, they draw different conclusions than you, but that is not because they don't grasp the issue. David Shemano
