Objectivist Ethics in Business

Posts 1-2 of 2

Cassandra Troy Group moderator
The company name is only visible to registered members.

Stop Blaming Capitalism for Government Failures
By Yaron Brook and Don Watkins

Speaking of the financial crisis, French president Nicolas Sarkozy recently said, “Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished.”

Sarkozy was echoing the views of many, including president-elect Obama, who assume that the financial crisis was caused by free markets--by “unbridled greed” unleashed by decades of deregulation and a “hands off” approach to the economy. And given this premise, the solution, they say, is obvious. To solve this crisis and prevent another one, we need a heavy dose of Uncle Sam’s elixir: government intervention. Whether it’s more bailouts, stricter regulation, a new round of nationalizations, or some other scheme, the only question since day one has been how, not whether, government is going to intervene.

And the issue is wider than the financial crisis. Millions of Americans don’t have health insurance? Well, says Obama, that’s because we’ve left the health-care system to the free market. The solution: a complete government takeover of medicine. A few companies engaged in accounting fraud? It must be because we didn’t impose enough regulations on businessmen. The solution: rein in corporations with Sarbanes-Oxley.

But while capitalism may be a convenient scapegoat, it did not cause any of these problems. Indeed, whatever one wishes to call the unruly mixture of freedom and government controls that made up our economic and political system during the last three decades, one cannot call it capitalism.

Take a step back (...) >>> Read it all: http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=21...
- 15 Nov 2008, 11:05 pm
Cassandra Troy wrote: > By Yaron Brook and Don Watkins > > Speaking of the financial crisis, French president Nicolas Sarkozy > recently said, “Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market > that always knows best is finished.” > > Sarkozy was echoing the views of many, including president-elect > Obama, who assume that the financial crisis was caused by free > markets--by “unbridled greed” unleashed by decades of deregulation > and a “hands off” approach to the economy. And given this premise, > the solution, they say, is obvious. To solve this crisis and prevent > another one, we need a heavy dose of Uncle Sam’s elixir: government > intervention. Whether it’s more bailouts, stricter regulation, a new > round of nationalizations, or some other scheme, the only question > since day one has been how, not whether, government is going to > intervene. > > And the issue is wider than the financial crisis. Millions of > Americans don’t have health insurance? Well, says Obama, that’s > because we’ve left the health-care system to the free market. The > solution: a complete government takeover of medicine. A few companies > engaged in accounting fraud? It must be because we didn’t impose > enough regulations on businessmen. The solution: rein in corporations > with Sarbanes-Oxley. > > But while capitalism may be a convenient scapegoat, it did not cause > any of these problems. Indeed, whatever one wishes to call the unruly > mixture of freedom and government controls that made up our economic > and political system during the last three decades, one cannot call > it capitalism. > > Take a step back (...) >>> Read it all: > http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=21923&news_iv_ct > rl=1021
Post visible to registered members

Objectivist Ethics in Business

Stop Blaming Capitalism for Government Failures