Everything You Need to Know in Four Minutes or Less!

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The above link will take you to an article that will take the average person about four minutes or less to read.  It's addresses "fairness" and the free market.  It states, in summary, that: "the free market ideology teaches not only that businesses can maximize profits by any legal means, but that they have a moral imperative to maximize profits by any legal means, including generating profits by imposing equivalent losses on their counterparties."  It concludes with the "aha" statement:  "Econ 101 (free market ideology) is diametrically opposed to human beings intuitive sense of fairness" and asks the question, " public policy follows the dictates of Econ 101; is that a good thing?"

I would reply with the question:  "Would public policy following the dictates of Marxism as handed down to the masses by the elite be a good thing?"

Did you know that many Little Leagues no longer "keep score" during their seasons and their games?  I'm not talking about the pee wee group, I'm talking 12-year-old little leaguers and beyond.  And, of course there is that "everyone gets a trophy" attitude that follows.  Competition becomes a bad word and no one learns anything, especially how to lose.  A mythical world is created in which there are no winners and no losers.  Everyone is happy, right?  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no.  Also, if you extrapolate to the major leagues and even the Olympics you would say that this is ridiculous or, at least, I think you would say that this is ridiculous.  I believe, however, that this is a result of the world view that basically says, "life's not fair so we have to MAKE it fair."  Not, "let's try encourage each other to be honorable and compassionate human beings" but "WE will decide what is fair and YOU will cooperate." 

The free market is not structured on "fairness" nor does it seek to influence human behavior in desirable directions.  Individuals do that.  Individuals, acting as active moral agents and who have a transcendent source of what is right and what is wrong do that.  You cannot divorce the individuals acting within a system from the system and make statements condemning or supporting that same system and stay in what I call the "real world."

This brings me back to the main theme of this post.  We cannot expect to get all the information we need to make important decisions in "four minutes or less."  We need to seek more information, but, even more importantly, we need to seek insight into the sources of our information and the "facts" presented therein.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" sounds good on the first reading, but if you seek insight into what this actually means in the real world you might have a different opinion. 

There are a few articles below that may be of interest.  You won't be able to read them in four minutes or less, but I believe it may turn out to be time well spent in your search for insight.  

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• Do Free Markets Lead to Fairer Wages? (reason.com)
• Mutualism versus Marxism (jockcoats.me)
• Where is the anti-capitalist ideology? | Antony Lerman (guardian.co.uk)