LOG CABIN CHRONICLES Remove the gun from the 'Invisible Hand' FRED RYAN SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Today, the famous "invisible hand" of the marketplace is not helping us allocate resources, it is holding a revolver to society's head.
We had been continually told that the free market can best manage society; its hustle and bustle of competing ideas and products -- its invisible hand -- would solve all of society's problem. So we were told.
That invisible hand has now turned out to be the homegrown threat we used to hear so much about. In effect, it's holding us all hostage, or trying to.
The present world crisis is substantiating the thesis by Canadian analyst Naomi Klein in her most recent study, Shock Doctrine. This is a study of what she calls "crisis capitalism" around the world; she details corporate skimming of billions from crisis like the Asian tsunami, the fall of the Soviets, and the billions dispersed to attack and occupy Iraq.
It is true that the free market has always been a great economic motivator. But it's exactly because of this stimulating effect that the market needs plenty of guidance.
The market's enthusiasm for profit will break down all borders of propriety, and when this expands into open, permissible greed, there's no stopping the market's embrace of the most outrageous adventures and investments, legalities be damned.
This is not theory -- we are suffering those consequences right now.
An effective marketplace is not automatic. It needs a very visible hand of the public -- and this doesn't mean merely more regulations, although regulation is critical. It can mean more big co-operatives, for example.
Many people feel the world is entering a new age -- call this the Obama effect, if you wish. Others call it the Age of Aquarius, which is to have started any time in the last fifty years, including this year's Valentines Day. Either way, the new age is supposed to bring us more intelligence, more mutual appreciations, and more equality in all spheres of life.
We can hope for these benign effects -- fairness, intelligence -- of the Age of Aquarius, or the age of Obama, and we may find some comfort there, but it would be wisest, don't you think, to set some market rules, make organizational charts, and clarify our definitions when it comes to economic matters like ownership of resources, fees and charges, profits, salaries, and bonuses? Doesn't our rule of law mean we agree to disagree and to negotiate, instead drawing lines in the sand and winner-take-all?
We see now that a free-wheeling, no-holds-barred free market isn't in our best interests, and even if it motivates a few hot-shots to work hard and become billionaires, it does not motivate everyone to do their best, nor does it come down on the side of activities and principles which are in society's interests.
A clearly defined and accountable marketplace sounds like a good way to start the Age of Aquarius. Or whatever we call it.
Copyright © 2009 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/03.09 |