Posted by
Andrews on Monday, December 28, 2009 10:28:22 PM
I hate to keep writing "
Upcoming Posts" style entries, but in this case I feel a bit better, as I am not adding yet another post to the list of unfinished projects, simply stating which unfinished project is next to finally be finished.
As I have been reading a lot Democrats and fellow-travelers trying to justify their bill, and most have been trying to explain away what they admit is a bad bill by appealing to supposed savings by eliminating the "waste" of the free market, I feel the need to finally explain precisely why this argument is so nonsensical. I know I have already written several posts covering specific aspects of this issue ("
Cutting "Costs"", "
Misunderstanding Profits", "
Again?", "
Government Efficiency", "
Two Examples of "Inefficiency" in Capitalism", "
Medical Reform, An Overview", "
Redefining Insurance... To Actually BE Insurance", "
Reviving Nonsense in the White House", "
A Simple Question"), but I think tomorrow, provided work is not busy, I will in finally write "Bad Economics Part 10", subtitled "Profit, Advertising and the Free Market", explaining why you cannot simply eliminate the "waste" of the free market by partially nationalizing the system, how one must either embrace the free market, "waste" and all, or else suffer the reduced efficiency of the controlled market.
I will likely touch upon some topics covered in "
The Inevitability of Bureaucratic Management in Government Enterprises, "
The Limits of "Scientific" Management", "
The Inherent Disappointment of Authoritarianism", "
Greed Versus Evil" and "
Planning For Imperfection", along with the posts already mentioned, as well as some material entirely new. Hopefully, when this post is complete, it will provide a final word on this one specific idiocy, a reference I can use whenever someone proposes "fixing" the free market in the future.