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RE: The Conservative Party, Capitalism, Millennials & Morality

in #ukpolitics7 years ago

I don't see free markets as all that moral. Of course it's all run by people who can choose to take moral actions, but we see a lot out to just enrich themselves with whatever they can get away with, e.g. paying the absolute minimum, using up scare resources, causing pollution. A lot of this is short-sighted. We need someone to control them so we can all have a future.

Oh, and I think a lot of young people are concerned about what sort of world they will have to live in. They can see the damage previous generations have done.

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I wasn't actually making the case for free markets. I might get around to that at some point, though it would probably be a life's work, not a single steemit post!

I do think markets are moral, as they permit free choice. That includes, of course, the ability to chose badly. But enforced morality is no morality. Short sighted actions are ultimately self defeating, of course. In a true free market, workers will take themselves off to the employer who pays a fair wage (free markets require free movement of labour, of course).

I could go on and on, but that wasn't the point of this post; so I won't.

Choice is good, but in a lot of cases people just get to choose between different corporations who will try to exploit them. I think some regulation is required, but it should not be too heavy-handed. We never seem to get the right balance.

Well with choice goes responsibility. Personally I do not wish the state to take those decisions for me. State regulation is based on the assumption that the state is benign, all knowing, wise, etc, etc. I actually think it is a protection racket which enforces its will through its monopoly on violence. I would rather trust the spontaneous order of the free market than the gentleman in Whitehall.

Maybe I will post on this.