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Opinion

The Myth of the Free Market

By DOUGLAS LUMMIS


「自由市場」という神話

新聞には連日のように、完全な自由市場のメリットを論じる記事が掲載されている。だが、「自由市場」の本当の意味は…

In today's newspaper (as in the newspaper on most days) there is an article discussing the merits of the fully free market.

It is remarkable that experts in economics still use this expression as if it meant something.

In fact there never was, is not now, and will never be a "fully free market." Human society could not bear it.

What is the free market? It is an abstract model that exists in the minds of economists. In that model, the economy is composed of a large number of economic actors, each of which is motivated only by "economic rationality," the desires to maximize profit and to minimize loss. This means they compete. Those that produce greater economic value at lesser cost will survive. Those that produce lesser value at greater cost will fail. Through this "survival of the fittest" mechanism, the economy will grow and prosper.

But to achieve this result there must be NO interference in the market. If the government tries to give aid to losers, or to help those in danger of becoming losers, it is "interfering with the natural operation of the market" and disrupting the process.

What would this system look like, were it put into effect? We can get an idea from the writings of Herbert Spencer, the 19th century sociologist. Spencer was one of the most consistent believers that the government should make absolutely no law to interfere in the market's operation. Some examples he gave of improper lawmaking are: laws to protect public health (such as laws requiring that doctors have licenses, or regulating sanitation in the food industry); laws regulating safety on the job, as in factories or mines; laws establishing minimum wages, limiting working hours, or prohibiting child labor; laws establishing universal compulsory education; laws establishing public libraries and public hospitals; and (of course) welfare of any kind.

To establish a fully free market in Japan you would have to begin by abolishing the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Labor Ministry and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

But of course business and government leaders who advocate the free market are (unlike Spencer) not really serious. They use the argument as a weapon to attack welfare and to knock down barriers that restrict big business from operating where and how it pleases. But they never oppose government interference in the market.

In the 19th century in the United States, the railroad industry was established when the government gave to the railroad companies huge tracts of land on which to lay their tracks. This is a classic case of welfare to the rich.

And today's paper (the same one with which I started) reports that the G-7 leaders are urging the government of Japan to spend public money to bail out the country's failing banks. In a fully free market, of course, the banks would be allowed to fail. But the Japanese government has announced it will spend at least ¥13 trillion to save these moneylenders. This is what they call "a free economy."


Shukan ST: Oct. 23, 1998

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