Thread: Ideal Type
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Old Sep 8, 2003, 01:37 am   #4 (permalink) (top)
RebelWithanAK
Igneous Magma
 
Location: New York City
Posts: 739
It is, methinks, silly to try to argue about "ideal" capitalism when "ideal" capitalism is a very unstable system - it lacks self-correction, and can only survive in what amounts to a trillion dollar test tube.

I'm not saying that commodity markets aren't a refined version of capitalism, I'm saying that they have little benefit to the outer world, because they are simply bastions of nigh-universal information supported by huge amounts of investor dollars and the finance industry - something that the vast majority of the population does not have stake in.

Besides, you yourself proved my point - capitalism is not a self-correcting system; it needs outside regulation in order to continue. Of course, labor strikes are part of this outside regulation, because they are an attempt to impose - as you say - codes of conduct; not to mention that they attempt to fulfill (however haphazardly) the second part of the act of commercial self-interest: the self-interest of the consumer.


. . . whenever any government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such forms as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
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