The only TRUE free market would be one in which ANY end-user had a choice of buying from ANY initial producer. The trouble with that is that the majority of people work somewhere within the 'middleman structure' which conveys the one to the other.
To ensure TRUE freedom of choice, the end-user would also need to decide which mode of transportation was used, which assembly plant was used, which warehousing firms were used to store goods until they were needed or could be delivered, which routes were chosen to transport the raw materials, intermediary parts and finished products from wherever they were to wherever they needed to be.
Could there ever be a system where an individual would decide where to source each of the hundreds of raw materials that went into making up their new car, could specify how those materials were to be processed into the required parts, how they were to be transported from factory to factory, where they were to be stored in between, where they were to be finally assembled, and so on? Bollocks there could!
And even if that was to be achieved, how would that empowered consumer learn about all of the options open to them? Would advertising be permitted? If not, what would replace it? And what controls would be placed on the firms involved in all of the necessary stages in order to ensure that there was no deception involved?
The system that we have at the moment is failing. Every system that preceded it failed. And - and here comes the kicker - every system that succeeds it will fail as well!
BUT! Every system that we ever had, have now, or will ever have in the future, worked/works/will work to a degree. Why? Because if it didn't, it would soon disappear up its own orifice.
I am
utterly centrist politically.
- I believe in the freedom of individuals to achieve as much as they can for themselves in the world. I also believe in the need for the state to protect those that are most vulnerable.
- I believe in minimal control over the actions of both individuals and businesses. I also believe in tough enforcement of those that overstep those boundaries.
- I believe that nobody in a world as technologically advanced as ours should need to struggle for the basic necessities of life: sufficient food, shelter from the elements, medical care,etc. I also believe that every one has the right to improve their lot in life through hard work and enterprise.
- I believe that it is right for a pharmaceutical company that has invested millions into research to realise a profit from that research. I also believe that it is indefensible if that same company allows people to suffer in order to increase their profit margin.
Ultimately, I believe that there is, and always will be, a conflict between: individual freedom and state control; business interests and consumer interests; free enterprise and the welfare state; globalism and provincialism. This has always been, is now and will always be. The most successful states are those that recognise this dichotomy and that the pendulum swings from time to time but that things are generally better when it is closer to the middle. Compromise and consensus are the paths that lead to the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.
The flipside of this is that absolutism, dogmatism, rigidity, inflexibility and an unwillingness to consider the opposing point-of-view is the path to the greatest misery. This is the POV of fascism, communism, and worst of all, the greatest instrument of self-abuse ever conceived by mankind, religion.
