fagin%ji.Berkeley.EDU@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU (10/02/86)
Randolph Fritz writes: > There is, in American democracy, an inherent conservatism. > Congressmen, driven by the desires of their electors, will seldom > propose acts that will change the lives of their electors. I think this is true, but not very insightful. > In answer to the Great Depression the United States government > implemented stringent bank regulations and made the government a > major employer; socialist policies of a violently anti-socialist > nation. There's no question that many of the reforms sought by socialists at the turn of the century have been adopted over the years. The short-term effects were beneficial for selected groups of American society; the long-term effects include gradual impoverishment of most of the nation. > Wage and price controls are another socialist innovation, ... > ...to stable wages and prices. If radical plans would return > wage and price stability, then bring on the radical plans! One of the best things about poli-sci was that for months now noone had suggested that wage and price controls were a good idea. I guess it had to happen sooner or later. You don't have to be a libertarian to realize that wage and price controls are sheer idiocy. You cannot dictate the economic behavior of human beings by legislative fiat; prices set too low cause shortages, prices set too high cause surpluses. Randolph has obviously never tried to live in a socialist country. (I have, spending two summers in Eastern Europe). Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania are indeed blessed with wage and price stability, along with chronic shortages of just about everything. There simply is no other way to determine the correct price of a good or service other than lettting people haggle in the marketplace. I thought even socialists realized this, but I see there's at least one who hasn't. Market prices provide *information*, information that people may desparately need. Wage and price controls are a form of censorship. It's always a pleasure to see someone from the radical left advocating them, since such people usually imagine themselves to be vigorous defenders of free speech. --Barry "Free minds, free bodies, free markets ..." -------