One of the most important differences between the political process and the market process is that they provide totally different feedback mechanisms. Had the politicians largely responsible for the housing crisis done their dirty deeds while working for private firms, they would have been fired, likely prosecuted, and memorialized in cautionary tales in business ethics casebooks from here until eternity. Instead, they’re busy crafting 2,319 page pieces of legislation aimed at increasing their power over the marketplace.

There are early signs that the Washington Post blockbuster Top Secret America could actually make some difference. Both the left and the right built this ghastly apparatus and it is going to take massive public outrage to dismantle it. The series makes a contribution to building that outrage.

[An MP3 audio file of this article, read by the author, is available for download.]
 

[New Individualist Review, 1961]

[This article is excerpted from chapter 7 of Individualism and Economic Order.]

Without some such central control of the means of production, planning in the sense in which we have used the term ceases to be a problem. It becomes unthinkable. This would probably be agreed by the majority of economists of all camps, although most other people who believe in planning still think of it as something that could be rationally attempted inside the framework of a society based on private property.

To be added to the list here:

1. The purpose of economic activity is to create employment, not goods and services.

2. Firms’ efforts to increase quality or lower costs are the results of psychological maladies.

As part of an ongoing series of papers about Walmart, Big Box retail, and economic change, I’m reading a lot of criticism of big companies that pay low wages and offer skimpy benefits. For Walmart’s critics, this is pretty easy to explain. Some argue that this is part and parcel of the capitalist mode of production. Like every other capitalist firm, Walmart extracts surplus value from its employees. Others might argue that Walmart has disproportionate power in local labor markets.