The last decade or so the media is constantly talking about entrepreneurs, and how the free market rewards people who do things better or more efficiently. The economists buzz word is competitive advantage.
But there are many other ways to succeed in a free market. The South's competitive advantage in their cotton based economy in the first 80 years of our countries existence was slavery. They had very low labor costs because they used slaves.
In manufacturing a companies competitive advantage could be skimping on public safety by dumping hazardous chemicals. Or worker safety. Or they may lie about the quality or nature of their products in their advertising.
Yet in our political dialogue anyone who addresses the negative ways to obtain competitive advantage is always accused of being anti-business. It would be helpful if politicians talked more about the negative characteristics of free markets rather than celebrating the positives and painting the negatives as unrelated to free markets.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment