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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly?
MSFT 478.41+0.1%12:42 PM EST
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To: M31 who wrote (8249)6/3/1998 9:34:00 AM
From: Daniel W. Koehler  Read Replies (2) of 74651
 
m31

I understand what ceteris paribus means. But your proposition borders on the metaphysical.

It is arbitrary to speculate about where the USA would be under alternative governments. First, you can't hold "all other things equal" in a stochastic environment where every variable's output in another variable's input. Second, there is no way to test the outcome of any hypothesis; hence any scenario is as good as the next. Of course, many PhD will be undoubtably written on this subject.

I guess we could also speculate about what would have happened to homo sapiens had we not split off from chimps. But to what end?

We CAN verify that the American free market has secularly created wealth and captial more efficiently than in countries with more autocratic forms of government.

So, if we're being arbitrary, let's also speculate on the improvement in America's wealth and captial generation ability under laissez faire and under anarchy as well as the current mixed economy, socialism and totalitarianism.

The real question I think we need to ask ourselves is how much government drag is "optimal" for a healthy economy consistent with individual liberty. A ship can sail more stably with ballast but not more speedily nor more efficiently.

Just the way I see it.

Ciao, Daniel
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