The Physics of Market Forces
There was a discussion on Morning Joe about the faith one should have with regard to market forces which I assume involves such things as 'supply and demand,' 'innovation,' 'competition,' 'resource acquisition,' and other such forces the likes of which few of us who are not economists can fully fathom; however, a university education is often fraught with bias. For as much as it embraces all things scientific, it often fails because the educated experts often can't see the forest for the trees.
The fellow who was touting the societal benefits of market forces is probably a Libertarian for not even a Republican wants to unleash businesses unfettered into landscapes of their own making. This fellow, a representative of conservatism comes across as haughty but then, you kind of have to be haughty to defend unbridled market forces. He, naturally, does not address any down side to his position, and that led me to write this blog.
One can imagine how market forces have led to progress throughout history and one would be hard-pressed to come up with scenarios to replace them that do not involve socialism or ponds but that's not to say that pure evil is not alive and well within capitalism--after all, the actor who starred in "Cheney," when receiving a Golden Globe award, thanked Satan for inspiring him to accurately portray Cheney, who, if he is not a capitalist unleashed, I don't know who is.
Let's take each market force in turn. Supply and Demand seems fairly innocuous except when you consider that this force was allowed to play out in the past; whereas, today, the Demand is fabricated to a large extent. I am referring here to Madison Ave. Ads that compel us to buy this or that object or service. The Supply aspect is also suspect if you consider planned obsolescence where the planning used to be truly planned. Now, it's more like benign neglect that fails to produce a lasting object. I discovered that BMW as early as 1987 had created a car whose interior falls apart after about 15 years yet we have Model T's and VW beetles with perfectly good interiors still around. Passing laws to eliminate planned obsolescence--albeit hard--would go a long long way towards minimizing the environmental impact of garbage, recycled or not. Designing durable goods does not mean we have to settle for Model T's. What if we changed the shell of the car but reused the engine and chassis both of which had been made efficient and long-lasting? Pressure is on, though; today the BBC reported that we (over a dozen states) and the U.K. are set to implement a "Right to Repair" law that says that repairs to electronic/electrical equipment should be doable by the consumer.
Innovation was said not to be in play without market forces but what forces made the early personal computer entrepreneurs come up with cash cows? How about the Wright brothers or Alexander Fleming or Tesla or Einstein--these people either didn't listen to the market forces of the time or, as is the case with Tesla, were flimflammed out of their creations. Do you think the super rich pharmaceutical companies innovate? They do not. They buy the rights to innovative products from the university researchers and when they do patent their own designs, it's nothing but a "me-too" product.
Competition falls by the wayside the minute a monopoly is formed. How do you think Gates got to be so rich? He had the only operating system around and had everyone by the proverbial spheres. In those situations where competition can happen, the first to come along have an enormous advantage if only because they obtained a patent first. Patents are bad for innovation and I've written elsewhere on this blog on how to fix the mess. Resource acquisition is akin to monopolizing as when a company strikes a deal with their suppliers that essentially excludes others from starting up.
Mainstream Media
Msnbc, CNN, and others, if you think your synchronization of commercials can fatigue me into staying with one channel, well, today I discovered a great English language Korean news show and re-discovered the BBC. You're not gems that washed ashore on the beach of plenty. The gems, at least for me, are fast becoming those who don't slam the same effen mind-numbing commercials at me.
The fellow who was touting the societal benefits of market forces is probably a Libertarian for not even a Republican wants to unleash businesses unfettered into landscapes of their own making. This fellow, a representative of conservatism comes across as haughty but then, you kind of have to be haughty to defend unbridled market forces. He, naturally, does not address any down side to his position, and that led me to write this blog.
One can imagine how market forces have led to progress throughout history and one would be hard-pressed to come up with scenarios to replace them that do not involve socialism or ponds but that's not to say that pure evil is not alive and well within capitalism--after all, the actor who starred in "Cheney," when receiving a Golden Globe award, thanked Satan for inspiring him to accurately portray Cheney, who, if he is not a capitalist unleashed, I don't know who is.
Let's take each market force in turn. Supply and Demand seems fairly innocuous except when you consider that this force was allowed to play out in the past; whereas, today, the Demand is fabricated to a large extent. I am referring here to Madison Ave. Ads that compel us to buy this or that object or service. The Supply aspect is also suspect if you consider planned obsolescence where the planning used to be truly planned. Now, it's more like benign neglect that fails to produce a lasting object. I discovered that BMW as early as 1987 had created a car whose interior falls apart after about 15 years yet we have Model T's and VW beetles with perfectly good interiors still around. Passing laws to eliminate planned obsolescence--albeit hard--would go a long long way towards minimizing the environmental impact of garbage, recycled or not. Designing durable goods does not mean we have to settle for Model T's. What if we changed the shell of the car but reused the engine and chassis both of which had been made efficient and long-lasting? Pressure is on, though; today the BBC reported that we (over a dozen states) and the U.K. are set to implement a "Right to Repair" law that says that repairs to electronic/electrical equipment should be doable by the consumer.
Innovation was said not to be in play without market forces but what forces made the early personal computer entrepreneurs come up with cash cows? How about the Wright brothers or Alexander Fleming or Tesla or Einstein--these people either didn't listen to the market forces of the time or, as is the case with Tesla, were flimflammed out of their creations. Do you think the super rich pharmaceutical companies innovate? They do not. They buy the rights to innovative products from the university researchers and when they do patent their own designs, it's nothing but a "me-too" product.
Competition falls by the wayside the minute a monopoly is formed. How do you think Gates got to be so rich? He had the only operating system around and had everyone by the proverbial spheres. In those situations where competition can happen, the first to come along have an enormous advantage if only because they obtained a patent first. Patents are bad for innovation and I've written elsewhere on this blog on how to fix the mess. Resource acquisition is akin to monopolizing as when a company strikes a deal with their suppliers that essentially excludes others from starting up.
Mainstream Media
Msnbc, CNN, and others, if you think your synchronization of commercials can fatigue me into staying with one channel, well, today I discovered a great English language Korean news show and re-discovered the BBC. You're not gems that washed ashore on the beach of plenty. The gems, at least for me, are fast becoming those who don't slam the same effen mind-numbing commercials at me.
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