Thread: The Truth About the Economy

Originally Posted by Gissurjon

In the U.S.

It is well demonstrated it the food industry. Fast food only has to contain 30% of the actual meat to claim to be of that meat.

why? well the laws got in the way so they were changed.

Are you getting it?

Yes, let's see... your example of unrestricted capitalism is the restriction of food having to contain at least 30% meat to be called meat.

wall street, the US banking system and the MNE's and TNE's. they can pretty much do what they want. a lot of the major industry's are self-regulated or regulation is voluntary.

neo-liberal economic policy is all about unregulated capitalism and the restriction of movement and wages of labor. the Internet and telecommunications allows capital to reach all corners of the globe.

You can't say that because part of the economy can do what they want that we are operating in a national economy of unrestricted capitalism. An extreme example would be a communist dictator allowing his friends to do whatever they want(no tax, no regulation) and calling that unregulated capitalism; it becomes meaningless in the bigger picture when we are talking about how to run a government. Corporate welfare is antithetical to laissez faire capitalism(economical right) but now people are redefining the term capitalism to suit their agenda. We have been operating under a modified free market system for a very long time in the U.S.

Originally Posted by troubador

We have been operating under a modified free market system for a very long time in the U.S.

extremely modified. free markets really only exists at the state level and below as state licensing, etc. restrict the ability to do business from state to state in many sectors. it's funny when I hear politicians on tv talk about "free markets" they really don't think much of the overall intelligence level of us citizens when they do that. in a world of free markets everyone would pretty much be in direct competition with each other and the costs of goods and services would be reduced substantially and not many would make a lot of money because of that. the US ranks at just about the middle to bottom in overall education when compared to other major OECD countries our literacy rate is behind some 3rd world countries, it's pathetic. in math we rank 25 out of 30, problem solving (critical thinking) 24 out of 30. in a true global free market system we would get slaughtered.

take health care as an example. if the US would let in more foreign born doctors healthcare costs could be reduced by an easy 25%. on average US md's make 3x the income of their foreign born counter parts. in the US being a md is a very prestigious job in terms of income most are in the top 5%. but in India because of the free education they have an abundance of md's and they can make more money working in a call center at $3/day vs being an unemployed md.