Our Anti-Competitive State Policy \ stacker news ~econ

pull down to refresh

Our Anti-Competitive State Policy mises.org/power-market/our-anti-competitive-state-policy

177 sats \ 4 comments \ @Undisciplined 6 Feb econ

By Victor Vanelli

Every law or regulation carries an economic cost that cannot be ignored or precisely predicted, altering economic incentives and stifling innovation and entrepreneurship.

view all related items

24 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 21h

Just like monetary regulation, antitrust regulation provided by the state is also an erratic regulation. As Murray Rothbard explained, market conditions are not static. Perfect competition does not exist (and cannot exist) in the real world, because the market is based on social dynamic interactions, and therefore, antitrust regulation tries to establish something that cannot exist, thus causing an unnecessary disturbance in competitiveness. Arguments in favor of antitrust regulation, on the other hand, are vague and imprecise, referring to “predatory competitiveness” and other rhetorical concepts that do not make any sense under a free-market environment. That is why antitrust regulation causes, ultimately, competitiveness problems.

We are not in an evenly rotating economy, therefore the changes in the economy are not predictable or avoidable. Situations change and cannot be controlled by mere laws to halt changes through monopoly enforcement actions. In a free and unhampered market monopolies, the way they are defined by the state, cannot exist because of competition and entrepreneurial pressures to make profits. As the author of the article states, Trump is not a disinterested actor in all of this, he is just like all the other politicians and statist actors, in it for himself, too. Unless we get the state out of the market, we will always have grifters and grifting. I am a pessimist on this, I don’t think it will happen.

40 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 6 Feb

The state is an unnatural actor that manipulates the natural flow of markets. Once I understood that it transformed how I thought about markets and the state. This is why communism is such a disaster and why we need to abolish the state all together. You create an incentive, a gravity well that sucks in the worst kinds of people into power so they can manipulate everything to their own profit or their world view.

Trump is a realist. Of course he seeks to enrich himself and stroke his ego. Biden was more of a moralist, IE enforcing his world view upon the world (when he was actually awake that is).

A CS Lewis quote comes to mind.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

~ C. S. Lewis

I would argue this quote perfectly fits someone like Woodrow Wilson. I'd rather see pure greed than someone like Wilson. Greed is easier to point out and understand than these ideological monsters. And yeah, I think Wilson was a monster. He's probably the single worst president the US has ever had.

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined OP 6 Feb

I think this is also something people don't understand about much of the administrative state. These are not generally corrupt people, looking out for number one, they believe that they're right and you're dumb or evil for opposing them.

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 6 Feb

Yep, its why I don't like saying corrupt when arguing against communism. The problem with central planning is that even good and smart people can't really do it. Even with the best of moral intentions it ends is disaster.

Thankfully we aren't in that system but we have enough of it that we are just slowly killing ourselves. We haven't stopped taking the drugs, we just stopped taking so much of the drugs that destroy life and property. This is why the more close an economy is to no regulation by a state the better off they are in the long run.