Imagine you are the foreman of a factory. Inside the factory are two machines. Both machines consume materials, energy, and labor and produce the same product, perhaps cars, or toasters, or pencils. However, one of the machines, given the same inputs, produces far fewer of that product. Assume that inputs for maintenance to keep the machines running indefinitely are included in the consumption numbers.
Many who support state regulation of free markets claim that they are not against free markets, just against unregulated free markets. They argue that regulation is needed to mitigate the harm that may be suffered during market participation, such as people working long hours for low wages or suffering racial discrimination. As Ronald Hamowy explains in his introduction to Friedrich von Hayek’s “The Constitution of Liberty,” these arguments were influential in the rise of both welfare socialism and national socialism:
In the early hours of Monday, July 29, the announcement of the election results in Venezuela echoed. Nicolas Maduro, is declared the winner in Venezuela’s presidential election by the electoral authority, setting up a high-stakes showdown that will determine whether the South American nation transitions away from one-party rule.
Just about every so-called business periodical touts an increase in consumer spending as “good for the economy.” But is this really so? Can we really spend our way out of a recession? Lord John Maynard Keynes thought so, and his teachings have become the standard narrative just about everywhere in the world.
