Capitalism is under attack by those on the Left that believe that it is evil and that it discriminates against "the oppressed". The major problem is that they try to wrap up both economics and their sense of morality into a bow. If it (or anything else, for that matter) isn’t exactly to their liking, it must be bad and must be legislated, regulated, or adjudicated to the point that it would be.
Yet, what would be better? Here’s something to say "there isn’t" (emphasis mine):
…I’ve often annoyed friends by repeating my view that “Prices are beautiful.” We have a tendency to view prices as deception, a trick played on consumers to scam us into paying more than we like. Prices are information. Like ants tracing pheremones, prices provide signals for the billions of buyers and sellers that we call “the market.” These prices guide our savings, our production and our consumption. Isn’t it marvelous how we can use a price to evaluate all 3 of those functions? Prices are like a universal language! (But far superior to Esperanto)
Our preferences conflict as multiple people want the same item. How do we resolve this? You could take it by force. You could plead your case before a judge. You could lobby a Senator for a favor. You could stand in line and submit a request to a bureaucrat. Or you could express your desire for the good directly to the person selling the item you desire. The seller can then compare the intensity of your desire to that of other interested buyers. We express the intensity of our desires (and our willingness to sell) with little tags of information called Prices!…
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
Progressives BIGGEST problem with capitalism? They don’t trust the sellers in selling a decent product or service, and they believe that most people will make bad decisions – or worse, the WRONG decision (in their minds). It also allows us to make choices – and choice is one of the biggest measures of freedom. The price of something is compared against my sense of it’s worth to me – am I willing to pay that price to fill either a need or a want? Is it of sufficient utility to me (either in actual usage or perceived value) for me to part with part of my life (my labor) to obtain it?
Price – doesn’t solve everything but can solve a lot.
Operation Payback – my run for my School Board is not just because of the obstinence; we are paying almost $20,000 / student with barely above average results with respect to NECAP scores. To me, even in a marketplace that is essentially a government monopoly (with insufficient competitors in the local market to provide a viable number of consumer choice), that is a price too high.
Capitalism is a voluntary exchange – either a vendor brings a product to market or not. I, as a consumer, can purchase a product, or not (except in MA where RomneyCare forces me to buy a product, and ObamaCare will force us all to do so).
Like at Best Buy, last night. It is not often that a TV starts to sound like a washing machine…
