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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Z268 who wrote (7255)	10/22/1998 10:25:00 AM
From: Robert Douglas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Stephen, This, and much recent press, seems to be along the lines that the concept of a world utopia based on global free market economies is unrealistic at best, and smack of one-sided competition at worst. I certainly can't argue with that. There has been a great deal of talk about how the utopia promised by capitalism is/was a myth. My objection to this line of thinking is capitalism never promised a utopia in the first place. I believe it was another economic order that used this jargon. Capitalism recognizes man's innate desire to compete and better his own predicament. Its promise was to use these urges to better all as a result of the individual's natural “selfish” desires. It never promised to morally redeem us or create a “new man”. Again these are the promises of another way. This is why I recoil when I hear commentators say that capitalism is falling short on its promises. A look at the history of the developed economies should show that capitalism produces wild economic cycles, uneven wealth distribution, social disruptions, and periodic bouts of unemployment, inflation and the occasional financial crisis. The payoff for these discomforts is that it eventually raises the living standards of all. Do I, or anyone for that matter, believe that free markets should be absolute and unregulated? Of course not. But I do believe we should be cautious in proposing grand schemes of regulation and change, especially when those proposing these changes begin by setting up a straw man of some “capitalist utopia” and then knocking it down before our eyes. -Robert