Blair’s example of owning a company that sells “junk food” and is very successful/profitable points to a major shortcoming of a “free market” and capitalism namely the reality that the negative externalities are not included in the price. At the beginning of this debate, taking negative externalities off the table was almost enough for me to stop watching, but I kept watching.
Advertising cigarettes using Joe Camel and other cartoon characters to get kids addicted to nicotine was a very profitable model. And Exxon lying about the reality (that they knew) burning gas contributes to climate change and pollution was also Blair’s vision of capitalism. With Tim Cook of Apple showing up at the White House with gifts in hand for our autocrat in chief so that he would remove his threat of tariffs is, I guess where crony capitalism is right now in the US.
Think about US capitalism in terms of the chemicals, dyes, and “natural flavors” we allow US manufacturers use in breakfast cereals…so it’s cheaper (and at the same time more profitable) but there is no price for the negative health externalities the cereal causes. Contrast that to regulations in both Canada and the EU that are much more stringent by not allowing corporations to slowly make their customers sick.
George’s FIAT is perhaps too hard to implement. And we can see how the banking, insurance, financial planning, and investment industries have made a joke out of the so called best interest fiduciary standard that has essentially no teeth and has so confused the general public that it’s pretty clear these industries have been wildly successful in capturing their regulators.
When “capitalism” is not properly regulated and there is regulatory capture you get crony capitalism. The mantra for Republicans for decades has been deregulation, deregulation, deregulation. In the past six months, they have defunded the IRS, the EPA, NOAA, CDC, etc etc. And we have an autocrat in the White House who is happy to have CEOs like Tim Cook shower him with gifts so they get special exceptions to his chaotic tariff tantrums and I’d say capitalism in the US is in need of change. Since the fiduciary standard has been a running regulatory joke in the financial service industry since ERISA, George’s FIAT would probably be hard to implement. By contrast, crony capitalism, income and wealth inequality, and negative externalities are all accelerating which is great for huge corporations and the top 1% but an ongoing disaster for the rest of us.
Good counter arguments Blair. Applying a wider fiduciary standard is too detached from human behavior (and how economies work). Instead, it’d be better to focus on reducing specific externalities, regulatory capture, anti competitive behavior, etc.
Blair’s example of owning a company that sells “junk food” and is very successful/profitable points to a major shortcoming of a “free market” and capitalism namely the reality that the negative externalities are not included in the price. At the beginning of this debate, taking negative externalities off the table was almost enough for me to stop watching, but I kept watching.
Advertising cigarettes using Joe Camel and other cartoon characters to get kids addicted to nicotine was a very profitable model. And Exxon lying about the reality (that they knew) burning gas contributes to climate change and pollution was also Blair’s vision of capitalism. With Tim Cook of Apple showing up at the White House with gifts in hand for our autocrat in chief so that he would remove his threat of tariffs is, I guess where crony capitalism is right now in the US.
Think about US capitalism in terms of the chemicals, dyes, and “natural flavors” we allow US manufacturers use in breakfast cereals…so it’s cheaper (and at the same time more profitable) but there is no price for the negative health externalities the cereal causes. Contrast that to regulations in both Canada and the EU that are much more stringent by not allowing corporations to slowly make their customers sick.
George’s FIAT is perhaps too hard to implement. And we can see how the banking, insurance, financial planning, and investment industries have made a joke out of the so called best interest fiduciary standard that has essentially no teeth and has so confused the general public that it’s pretty clear these industries have been wildly successful in capturing their regulators.
When “capitalism” is not properly regulated and there is regulatory capture you get crony capitalism. The mantra for Republicans for decades has been deregulation, deregulation, deregulation. In the past six months, they have defunded the IRS, the EPA, NOAA, CDC, etc etc. And we have an autocrat in the White House who is happy to have CEOs like Tim Cook shower him with gifts so they get special exceptions to his chaotic tariff tantrums and I’d say capitalism in the US is in need of change. Since the fiduciary standard has been a running regulatory joke in the financial service industry since ERISA, George’s FIAT would probably be hard to implement. By contrast, crony capitalism, income and wealth inequality, and negative externalities are all accelerating which is great for huge corporations and the top 1% but an ongoing disaster for the rest of us.
Good counter arguments Blair. Applying a wider fiduciary standard is too detached from human behavior (and how economies work). Instead, it’d be better to focus on reducing specific externalities, regulatory capture, anti competitive behavior, etc.