Capitalism: Is it Working?

[Sal]

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/05/o...d-markets/

An interesting article about how free markets seemingly erode otherwise moral behavior.

an excerpt:

A market for ethics

How can a marketplace have such a profound effect on people's decisions? The authors note that there are a number of factors likely at play. To begin with, it takes two people to agree to a deal that ends up with a dead mouse, and that may be viewed as distributing the responsibility to an extent. The mere existence of a market structure also helps normalize the decision in people's minds, suggesting that the situation is socially acceptable. Finally, the structure of a market displaces people's reasoning, shifting it from the life or death of a mouse to a competition over the particulars of a deal and awareness of the deals that others are cutting.

Based on http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6133/707 (requires subscription)

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Capitalism works. What most countries have is not capitalism, it is corporatism, where corporations have a lot of control over the government and pass laws to help themselves. Capitalism can be seen as the separation of the market from the state. In other words, the government does not pass laws that help individual corporations, and leaves the market to largely regulate itself.

This.

I also think that lobbyism skews the political arena by corporate interest groups.