Quote:
Originally posted by sgtclub
"Net social utility" is another word for government controls of markets, because, in essense, you believe that men are better than markets at determining the optimals involved. I do not share this belief and history is clearly and unequivacally on my side on this.
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This is an argument tactic that I just can't stand --- the pretense that what you are arguing against would constitute "government control of markets" (i.e., "socialism"), while what you are arguing for constitutes pure free enterprise.
When the government prohibits companies from making competitive products because of patent rights, that is a government control of the market, no less or more so than when the government sets price ceilings or subsidies. When the government prohibits people from importing competing products, that too is government control over the market.
Government control may have net beneficial effects, or net detrimental effects, but stop pretending that the current system is "free enterprise".
