Hi Austrian folks,
It’s been a long time since my last visit to this Forum - doesn’t mean that my interest on the subject has declined…
When challenged by interventionists, we (i.e. free-market advocates) tend to stick mainly to technical - and sometimes lengthy - explanations, and our opponents tend to deviate towards the emotional side of things, and the debate normally ends up like this: no progress with respect to the diffusion of the free-market ideas.
Thinking about this, I’ve been wandering about the possibility to compile some kind of “wiki”-inspired quick reference database to help us debate concisely and consistently, something like an “FAQ” on the subject.
It could be structured in a similar fashion as one of my favorite engineering tools: a “troubleshooting chart”.
The idea could start as shown on the table below, intended as an example (please note I’m a layman in Economics, having learnt the little I know today only through reading on Mises.org; should you find any imprecise info, disregard it and replace with the right clarification):
Free Market Troubleshooting Chart (nice title, isn’t it??)
|
Issues encountered |
Operational Cause(s) |
Underlying/ Root cause(s): |
Countermeasure(s) |
|
Walls around private land and buildings are partially destroyed, vandalized and smeared with ugly graffiti and silly left-revolutionary slogans |
No risk of punishment for the violation of property rights |
Poor to none enforcement of property rights as a disguised form to implement/ stimulate collectivism |
To legally enforce and/ or restore property rights |
|
To provide efficient (private) police to ensure enforcement |
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|
Vandalizing the other’s property deemed justifiable by the “class struggle” and similar fallacies |
Anticapitalistic mentality instilled by public school and mainstream media |
To abolish public school and indoctrination |
|
|
To implement private education and instill the non-aggression principle |
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|
Peddlers wandering all over, aggressively asking for money and disturbing the passers-by (a.k.a. taxpayers) |
General impoverishment due to taxing, inflation, regulation and restrictions to the free market |
Central banking policies and issuing of fiat money |
To abolish central banking To adopt “hard” money standard |
|
Internal and external trade restrictions |
To abolish trade restrictions |
||
|
High taxes throughout all the economy |
To abolish taxes |
||
|
Massive rural migration into the cities |
Heavy sales taxing on agricultural products |
To abolish taxes |
|
|
Lack of incentive to agricultural economic activities |
To deregulate agriculture business |
||
|
Price controls and subsidies |
To abolish price controls and subsidies |
||
|
Lack of credit for investment |
To abolish government planning and control of agricultural credit and transfer the credit function to the free market banking sector |
||
|
High unemployment within the less schooled groups |
Increasing illiteracy, poor education |
To abolish public school |
|
|
To implement private education |
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|
Unionizing, licensing, regulation |
To abolish compulsory unionizing, to deregulate the labor market |
||
|
Easy living on charity rather than struggling for life with a low-pay job |
High indirect costs for potential employers to hire low-qualification workers |
To abolish welfare system and high associated labor costs |
|
|
Minimum wages preventing employers from hiring low-qualification workers at wages higher than their marginal productive capacity |
To abolish minimum wage laws |
||
|
Loss of self-esteem and human dignity |
Dehumanization and devoiding of the human status through the rejection of moral values and deconstruction of family, while glorifying the State as a substitute with respect to family as a nucleus of society |
Hmmm, difficult one… My personal opinion: to stop State indoctrination which destroys family values and to stop inhibiting the potential, voluntary use of religion (within each belief group) as moral inspiration for the individual recovery |
|
|
Massive propaganda on the “evils” of capitalism and the “human right” to live at the other’s expenses |
To abolish public school and state indoctrination |
||
|
To implement private education and propagate the basics of free-market economics |
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|
Streets full of potholes, cracks |
Poor street maintenance owing to inefficient public street management |
Corruption in public services |
To deregulate and privatize street management |
|
Lack of incentives to work efficiently (stability of public jobs) |
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|
Lack of price incentive and competition |
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|
Water and sewage leaks on the streets and sidewalks; mix-up of rainwater drainage and sewer systems |
Poor installation and maintenance of water, drainage and sewer systems owing to inefficient public management |
Corruption in public services |
To deregulate and privatize water, drainage and sewer services |
|
Lack of incentives to work efficiently (stability of public jobs) |
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|
Lack of price incentive and competition |
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|
Proliferation of “favelas” (lumberyards) |
Chronic urban housing deficit |
Zoning laws and building restrictions |
To abolish zoning laws and restrictions |
|
Environmental protection areas established to ensure privileges for interest groups |
To abolish environmental regulations and to establish property rights on the “commons” |
||
|
Lack of incentive for investment in housing |
To deregulate housing and mortgage systems |
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|
Lack of credit due to excessively high mortgage rates |
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|
Traffic jams throughout the whole urban area |
Insufficient/ inappropriate traffic ways (streets, tunnels etc.) |
State monopoly on these resources |
To abolish State monopoly and enable private investment on traffic ways |
|
Poor collective transportation means (bus, subway) |
Low incentive for businesses to invest in transportation due to State regulation, price control, concessions etc. |
To abolish State licensing and to deregulate concessions, routes and all other parameters, and to allow for competition between service providers |
|
|
High cost of taxis/ car services |
Heavy taxing, unionizing and State licensing and legislation to operate the service |
||
|
Excess of vehicles with respect to the available resources |
Low incentive for car users to prefer other transportation means |
To improve alternative transportation means as stated on the previous items |
|
|
To be expanded “ad libitum” |
This could grow to cover all aspects of daily life and economics-related matters, and we would try to use this as an additional tool for making the pro-free-market view more understandable to the public in general.
I’d appreciate any (civilized) comments on this subject.
Kind regards from Brazil,
R. Halevy
Rio de Janeiro.