The common illusion that free market capitalism bring people out of poverty
It is a common myth that growth and free market bring poor people out of poverty, or increase living standards. Even experts in all kind of different fields, will fall into these talking-point, when asked how to combat poverty. So, why am I willing to argue against all kinds of experts? Because the myth is so easily debunkable.
If economic growth, and access to resources was as important, as stated, you can image a early history world where every single individual, had access to the same resources as the elite. Basically only looking at health, living conditions and quality of life, of the elite. Would that give a higher standard of living, compared to what average individuals in western countries have to day? NO! Abundance of food and other resources, will protect you from starvation, but not from food going bad, or sanitary removal of waste, and it will not save you from diseases, infections or bodily damage.
It is not lack of resources that is biggest the difference between early history and now, but knowledge and technology. It's not enough to have an abundance of food, you also need to know whats healthy to eat. You need modern medicine to cure illness. You need machines to do harmful tasks for you. You need modern infrastructure to access goods and information, and to get rid of waste. We can go on and on about technology that make life easier and more entertaining to live: Cars, airplanes, computers, TV, smartphones... We also expect more and unimaginable inventions to come in the future. But none of them will appear just because of trade. They all need people to have a new idea and access to the knowledge and technology to bring it to life.
To those that say capitalism and free market, have given us the life we have today, I reply: Humans have traded freely for 5000 years, and for most of this time didn't use this freedom for more than selling basic food and pottery, just to survive another day. Economical revolutions have never correlated with changes in the economic system, but with the invention of new technology. Some might say: Ye, but you still need free trade to make those technological progress happen. My reply reply would be: Regulations have increased at the same speed as technology, because regulations are made to prevent the abuse of those new technologies. Laws and regulations will always correlate with the complexity of the civilization, and have no positive correlation with the freedom of the market.
You have no idea what you are talking about, they are just calling it
Free Market Capitalism. It is more like Crony Capitalism, even in the third world. Regulation is the criminals in government just trying to grab part of the action, and slowing up the rest of it.
Seems that a lot of your observations are correct, but with faulty conclusions.
I can give you several examples of healthy regulations of the free market. Like regulations on content of food and every day items, so consumers don't get harmed, or product stop working before life expectancy is reached. Regulations on finance, making market manipulations illegal. Regulations on pollution, so producers don't harm local or global environment. Regulations on selling of humans, to prevent slavery. You can erase all of those regulations, and increase the opportunities to make money, but on the expense of other people.
I am pretty shore you will find examples of unproductive and corrupt regulations, but few free market ideologist will argue the difference, but rather argue that the invisible hand of the market, will solve all this by it self. Even when it's obvious that no market ever corrected any of the concerns made illegal by the above mentioned regulations by it self. The policing of regulations is also an ongoing battle to prevent the selling of harmful products for a quick buck.
I can agree that you cite good attempts to keep us safe, but:
I agree we need regulation, I never said we did not. But much regulation is a very poor joke, and you cited some of the worst. The good ones? I did not argue against, yes we need a clean environment and expiry dates on food are a great thing, this seems to work well in the USA but I know other countries need some work. Big Government is a travesty, they are allowing the cronies free reign but the little guy gets ground to dust in the wheels of bureaucracy.
I just think that much of what you mention works best when we as citizens are VIGILANT.
Your examples of failing regulations, isn't an argument against regulation, but rather a proof that those regulations are as needed now, as when they where made. But they need to be enforced. To do that, you need a willing and able government.
Citizens will disagree, be uninformed, misinformed, and most won't even care. Just look at the last 10 years of protesting: 99%, blacklivesmatter, Charlottesville Rally. They all made anti-movements as vocal and strong as the movement itself. No progress made by vigilant citizens. What is the better justice system.. lynch-mobs acting on feelings and rumors, or trained police and skilled judges acting on the facts, where both parts can tell their side, with laws equal for everyone as guideline. Maybe the system don't work as well as it suppose to. But you won't get better justice by tearing it down. Only solution is cleaning it up.
you are the one bringing up lynch mobs...
IMO the cronies in .GOV are handcuffing the public servants. I think we have more agreement here than disagreement. PLUS, if you said something I could really agree with whole-heartedly, I could raise your Rep level quickly :D
But I am not gonna tell you what I want to hear :P
I suspect you will hit it soon! Cleaning it up is a great start. LOL
If you take away the tax-payed justice system, you are stuck with random people taking justice into their own hands... a lynch mob.
You are completely right that US got cronies in government. IMO it is because you choose the wrong people to govern you. If you look for small government politicians, you will get people that don't respect the system, and have small issues taking advantage of it. Better to accept government and taxes is here to stay, and vote for politicians that want to make the best system possible, for its citizens.
I'm from Norway, and we got way more trustworthy politicians than you. Probably why I say, "Let government do it", while you say "Get government out of my business"
Regulation has NEVER increased at the same speed of Tech, it always LAGS then over-compensates to TRY and make up for the initial lag. Human Nature...
New tech give new possibilities, also for taking advantage. Then you got the choice to let them keep on taking advantage with no regulations, or making regulations to protect the people.
Some laws are made to empower the rich and powerful or to control the masses, some laws are made to moralize, some laws are made by stupid people. None of those are good for the citizens, and should be deleted. Some laws are good for only parts of the population. Should they stay? Debate needed. But when we talk about regulations like the examples I mentioned, where the goal is to protect the hole population from harm, I would say; no discussion, those are needed.