|
Excellent thread.
I think there is a bit of rose coloured glasses element on both extremes of this issue.
The truth is somewhere in the middle (as always). An entirely free market is not desirable, not is a heavily controlled market. Businesses need laws and regulations in forms of things like intellectual property rights, bankruptcy laws, anti-trust, etc. It is not a surprise to find that the most robust economies of the world have a very smooth and well-functioning bureaucracy.
On the flip side of this, citizens benefit from things like environmental controls, anti-trust (it benefits both businesses and citizens), labour laws, etc. Some of these regulations can hinder businesses to the point of crippling their ability to compete, the key is to regulate in such a way as to prevent a race to the bottom.
To my mind, the best and boldest way that a government (and by extension citizens) can influence industry is through seed money. This can take the small scale form of R&D support to Universities or it can be on a huge scale such as the race to the moon (imagine for a moment if Bush, instead of waging a war in Iraq had used his post 9/11 political capital to push for America to break the bonds of oil dependency, to push for a technological shift by inspiring a generation of youth to think differently, to seed technological developments and create new forms of green industry all in the way that Kennedy's push to the moon inspired and brought about change). Governments have the power to influence in very positive ways through selective legislation and incentive.
__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke
|