(December 15, 2010 at 2:16 pm)lilyannerose Wrote: You seem to have more faith in the honor of business and corporate entities than I have ever been able to muster!
Not at all. A lot of businesses will be dishonorable and downright evil. What my form of free market capitalism does is place the power back in the hands of the consumer, where it rightfully belongs. It is in the best interests of the company to keep their consumers happy, since they are responsible for 100% of their revenue. The problem with any regulating authority is that they are human, and all humans have a price at some point. If you want to avoid corruption, take the corruptible out of the picture.
Quote:Unless business/corporations are absolutely subject to law for doing harm to individuals and environment, just to ID two sectors, IMHO business cannot be trusted to comply with either lobby groups or consumers, greed conquers all.
The greed of corporations ultimately rests on supply and demand. If there is no demand, it doesn't matter how great the greed is, the company will fail. Businesses have been getting around laws for years, and they will continue to do so. Of course businesses can be trusted to comply with consumers; if they don't, the business collapses. If you had a coffee shop, and all your consumers suddenly demanded you lower the price of your coffee, what would you do? Refuse and hope that more consumers come along (and risk your business collapsing whilst you wait), or take the loss in the hope that your lower prices will keep your customers happy and invite more people to your business?
Quote:Is your idea based on strong competition? At this time we have so many near monopolies that there is very little price competition. How would you suggest that monopolies be broke up and a competitive environment replaced the current business models?
Strong competition can be good, sure, but the fact is that not all monopolies are evil. Monopolies, like all businesses, are still reliant on their consumers. I wouldn't suggest that monopolies be broken up by any governmental means, since it goes against what the "free market" is supposed to be about. If a monopoly exists, it is being funded by numerous consumers who are happy enough to exchange their money for whatever it produces. If people want to take down a monopoly, it is simple: stop giving it money.
Quote:In order for lobby groups and consumers to be an effective "policing" force you would have to have a system in place that wrong doing would affect the bottom line, how would you achieve this?
The system in place is supply and demand. Cut the demand, and the company starts losing money; at which point any good CEO would wake up and take the hint. All bad CEOs would watch as their company fades into oblivion.
Quote:At this point in our history it would be very difficult to unwrap business from the spine of government.
Libertarianism goes hand in hand with revolutions, IMO. It would be difficult, and a lot of work, but it is the standard we should be aiming for.
