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17 votes
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No, raising the minimum wage does not hurt US fast-food workers
29 votes -
Private equity firms should prepare for increased US government scrutiny over healthcare investment
9 votes -
Does market failure justify government intervention? (with Michael Munger)
5 votes -
Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1,000 a month. A year later, nearly half of participants had housing.
37 votes -
Giorgia Meloni accused of splitting Italy over law to let richer regions keep taxes. Critics say differentiated autonomy bill, sought by wealthier areas, will increase poverty in south.
9 votes -
US economists report on an intervention that helps low-income families beat the poverty trap
17 votes -
WASPI [Women Against State Pension Inequality] Campaign's legal action is morally wrong
3 votes -
Why 295,000 businesses are in this little building
12 votes -
Seattle’s law mandating higher pay for food delivery workers is a case study in backfire economics
18 votes -
Spending cuts are often false economies that end up costing society dearly
16 votes -
Norway unveiled plans to remove a loophole used by the Nordic nation's richest – government attempts to drag more tax revenue out of the fleeing billionaires
15 votes -
Is private equity actually worth it?
18 votes -
350,000 Californians are now on the FAIR Plan, the last resort for fire insurance. Now what?
36 votes -
US Federal Trade Commission and eight states sue to block supermarket merger between Kroger and Albertsons
37 votes -
Egypt announces $35bn deal with UAE to buy premium Mediterranean area
11 votes -
Capital One to buy Discover Financial in $35.3 billion all-stock deal
32 votes -
Finnish unions have called for industrial action to protest government proposals on labour law reforms which they say would adversely impact low-wage earners
10 votes -
Palm Springs capped Airbnb rentals. Now some home prices are in free-fall.
49 votes -
New York City plans to wipe out $2 billion in medical debt for 500,000 residents
27 votes -
Texas businesses file amicus brief saying abortion ban costs state nearly $15 billion a year
24 votes -
Canadian federal government considering new caps on payday lending and high risk lending
12 votes -
Detroit wants to be the first big American city to tax land value
33 votes -
Size of McKinsey consulting firm opioid settlement increased by $230 million
10 votes -
Los Angeles is exploring banning cashless businesses, following the example of New York City, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, Colorado, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington, DC
59 votes -
San Francisco’s downtown becomes a wake-up call for other cities in the US
60 votes -
Why does market fundamentalism have so much clout in economics?
There's a couple of other words that describe what I'm talking about - neoliberalism, lassez-faire capitalism, and in a more general sense, the Chicago school of economics - but I chose market...
There's a couple of other words that describe what I'm talking about - neoliberalism, lassez-faire capitalism, and in a more general sense, the Chicago school of economics - but I chose market fundamentalism because it seemed to best describe precisely what I'm talking about. I mean the belief that the market is capable of self-regulation and that governmental intervention will cause damage to the economy.
I'm asking this because there's still a lot about economics that I don't know about and so I was hoping someone with a background in the subject who would be able to better answer the question. But I realize it's probably also a political question. I wonder if it's more of an issue of our politicians pressing these views than economists and academics.
Personally, with my life's experience, it seems almost obviously wrong. I've lived through several market downturns and even a crash, and looking through history it seems like every market crash can be attributed to the market failing to correct itself.
21 votes -
PwC Australia to sell its government business for A$1, and appoint new CEO, after tax advice scandal
7 votes -
A Delaware city is set to give corporations the right to vote in elections
28 votes -
The high-wire drama of raising the US debt ceiling is making headlines again. Is there a better way? Perhaps Denmark has the answer.
5 votes -
Super-rich abandoning Norway at record rate as wealth tax rises slightly – flood moving abroad has come as a shock and is costing tens of millions in lost tax receipts
10 votes -
Joko Widodo wants local governments to ditch Visa, Mastercard
4 votes -
The greatest tax system in the world – why can't America be as great as the Faroe Islands?
14 votes -
The incentive problem at the heart of the American justice system
7 votes -
Norway's fossil fuel bonanza stokes impassioned debate about how best to spend its 'war profits'
4 votes -
Battle for the nation's soul – Norway faces debate about gas and oil wealth
8 votes -
A theme park crisis is wrecking South Korea’s bond market
3 votes -
Norway-style windfall tax on energy companies could raise £33.3bn extra by 2027, plugging a hole in UK government finances, analysis has found
4 votes -
Are billionaires a market failure? And if not market, are they social failure?
I was reading this text from the Washington Post (sorry for the maybe paywall): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/06/xi-jinping-crackdown-china-economy-change/ The opinion asserts...
I was reading this text from the Washington Post (sorry for the maybe paywall):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/06/xi-jinping-crackdown-china-economy-change/
The opinion asserts that in response to liberalization of Chinese life, driven by capitalistic economic growth, is the reason that Xi Pinjing "cracked down in every sphere imaginable — attacking the private sector, humiliating billionaires, reviving Communist ideology, purging the party of corrupt officials and ramping up nationalism (mostly anti-Western) in both word and deed."
My conspiratorial brain latched on to the humiliating billionaires line, and started thinking about a between the lines message along the lines that billionaires are good and should not be humiliated, a subtle warning-response to the progressive grumblings here in the U.S. that a failure to support capitalism will result in totalitarianism.
Then I started thinking about the questions, are billionaires good for society? I had always held the position that a billionaire is a market failure (in my econ 101 understanding of the term), much like pollution. It is improper hoarding and unfair leveraging of capital into disproportionate and un-earned degree of pesonal privilege.
It is certainly a by-product of euro-american capitalism, whereby the desires and welfare of the many are trodden on by those with the ability to fight and to shape the regulatory machine meant to protect the interests of the common-wealth.
I see a few possibilities. One, is that my understanding of economics is wrong, and producing as many billionaires as possible is the ultimate goal of capitalism and in fact good for everyone, even in theory.
Two, it is indeed as I suspect, a market failure. And the failure here is one of degree, it is not, in fact problematic to have some individuals with significantly greater wealth among us, and is, in fact, beneficial overall, but to have some with so much more than the rest of us (wealth inequaility) is a result of getting in the way of a clean functioning marketplace.
Three, economic theory is working as described, and economic theory/activity is an insufficient foundation for the maintenance and success of a whole society, and we need to find a way to constrain it to its own sphere, so that it provides us with what we need to be healthy and happy, but no more.
I turn to the bright minds of tildes: am I looking at this right?
16 votes -
UK scraps tax cut for wealthy that sparked market turmoil
11 votes -
Buy a rural hospital for $100? Investors pick up struggling institutions for pennies
7 votes -
Why Galesburg has no money
8 votes -
Sweden has earmarked $661 million for a temporary scheme to help the most affected households cope with high electricity bills this winter
6 votes -
Solving the operator ‘shortage’ by not running transit like a business
8 votes -
Ontario passes the Working for Workers Act
10 votes -
Restrictive Californian zoning laws worsened the supply chain crisis
8 votes -
US to erase student debt for those with severe disabilities
15 votes -
Washington state capital gains tax already faces a lawsuit
7 votes -
Amsterdam’s ‘doughnut economy’ puts climate ahead of GDP
16 votes -
Norway prevents sale of Rolls-Royce subsidiary Bergen Engines to Russia – government has blocked the sale on the grounds of national security
8 votes