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What Do Subsidies to Hedge Fund Managers Have to Do With a Free Market?
The NYT had yet another piece giving the conseravtive line in which policies that redistribute income upward are defined as being the "free-market," while policies that prmote equality are seen as government intervention. For example, the article touts the usual nonsense about "free trade" agreements implying that a system that subjects less educated workers to competition with people in the developing world, while largely protecting highly paid professionals, has anything to do with free trade.
The article also implies that negotiating drug prices with manufacturers is interferring with the market, while allowing them unfettered patent monpolies is a free market policy. And of course, having special low tax rates for private equity and pension fund managers appears also as free market policy.
It will be nice when the media will just tell us about the policies that politicians support and their implications and stop giving us their ideological spin.
--Dean Baker
COMMENTS (4)
Terrific analysis, as usual...thanks for keeping us enlightened!
Posted by: Claudia Chaufan | July 16, 2007 2:20 PM
One problem with our health system is that it's neither "free market" or socialized.
For instance, what if you could get basic "finger-stick" tests (blood-sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides) at either the local beauty parlor OR a government kiosk? That might be rather helpful when it comes to heart disease, diabetes, kidney failure, etc.
But that's not an option in our system. So a little old lady in the inner city can't just walk a few blocks to get a test. She has to waste gas, if she has a car, or spend a lot of time on busses, to go to a formal clinic. Inefficient. Worst of both worlds.
What I'm getting at, is that when it comes to health care, most people don't even know what "free market" means.
Posted by: K L Ku'un | July 16, 2007 7:48 PM
It wasn't implied... IT IS ACCEPTED.
This place we live in... IT IS ACCEPTED. We aren't Michael Moore. You are about to run into a buzzsaw of reality that makes the 1972 election seem pleasant.
Dude, I'm supportive of atleast some of your goals. But you are soooo milque-toast.
DEAL with the reality. THIS COUNTRY IS FULL OF COWBOYS. Regular working guys who totally get the deal and simply choose NOT to participate in a system that raises up Milque Toast.
Something about their long range thinking reminds them, that you are the kind of guy who becomes more important if we follow your ideas - and dude, that SMELLS WRONG. It really smells.
If you want to sell your idea, remember you are part of it yourself, and you aren't persuasive to the masses for a reason.
It's either the message or the messaenger - and if your message is sooooo great - then dude, it must be you.
Yeeeez.
Posted by: Morgan | July 17, 2007 2:10 AM
Dean
it's "free market (TM)" , silly.
Morgan,
what the hell are you saying? can you translate that out of cowboy for us?
Posted by: coberly | July 18, 2007 2:49 PM