The BBC ran an interesting opinion article relating back to what we have been discussing in class. Basically the author was bringing up the joke of "how many economist does it take to change a light bulb?" The answer to the joke is "none; that the market will take care of it." What the author was trying to illustrate is that this may not be the case or at least everyone should not have blind faith in this idea. She goes on to discussion specific circumstances where the market had failed the public in Britain.
The issue I have with the article is that the author tries to relate all economic issues due to a few private corporation failures. I feel that the issue is not necessarily the blind belief that free markets will solve everything, but that there was not enough competition to force efficiency. I do agree that blind support in free markets is not healthy, I just do not agree with the examples she uses to support her ideas.
2 comments:
The whole discussion of market being used as the end all be all of economic theory is rightly criticized but instead of blindly condemning or professing faith in the market its the way in which we examine the market and the failures it creates that is the best way to realistically address economic issues.
P.S. I prefer the punchline "8, one to change the light bulb and seven others to hold all factors constant"
Hahaha. Jeez nate go easy on this article I didn't think it was that bad. I thought the point was that you can't just leave things alone, like you said. I don't think that it was a socialist coup attempt on democracy. The author, I think, rightly criticizes the fact that ignoring some problems altogether have serious concequences, as seen this summer.
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