One point of contention with the author's views: free-market capitalism, or laissez faire as it was called before Karl Marx came along, as I understand it, does not allow for corporations. A free market is a theoretical concept that unfortunately has yet to be realized. Corporations are legal fictions created by the state with, at a minimum, at least one very special privilege, that of limited liability, and often other special benefits such as enFORCED monopolies or oligopolies, all of which are anathema to the free market. The corporate privilege is enFORCED by the government and there is nothing of free about a system predicated on force. What the author of this article describes as free-market capitalism is not. It has been called crony capitalism, and it is more akin to fascism and/or mercantilism than free-market capitalism. At one point in his article the author does refer to it as corporatocracy, also known as corporatism, which is more accurately descriptive, but he goes on to call the same "free-market capitalism." Logically speaking, since the author's premise is wrong, his conclusion that free-market capitalism is an unstable system is also wrong. It isn't.
For a brief description of another astrophysicist's world view, which was similar in some respects and quite different than that of Peter Kalmus in other respects, may I call your attention to Andrew J. Galambos. Here are two articles that touch briefly on his views. A Google search will turn up more. http://voluntaryist.com/how... and here: http://harrybrowne.org/arti...
On Oct 30, 2015 Ned Netterville wrote:
One point of contention with the author's views: free-market capitalism, or laissez faire as it was called before Karl Marx came along, as I understand it, does not allow for corporations. A free market is a theoretical concept that unfortunately has yet to be realized. Corporations are legal fictions created by the state with, at a minimum, at least one very special privilege, that of limited liability, and often other special benefits such as enFORCED monopolies or oligopolies, all of which are anathema to the free market. The corporate privilege is enFORCED by the government and there is nothing of free about a system predicated on force. What the author of this article describes as free-market capitalism is not. It has been called crony capitalism, and it is more akin to fascism and/or mercantilism than free-market capitalism. At one point in his article the author does refer to it as corporatocracy, also known as corporatism, which is more accurately descriptive, but he goes on to call the same "free-market capitalism." Logically speaking, since the author's premise is wrong, his conclusion that free-market capitalism is an unstable system is also wrong. It isn't.
For a brief description of another astrophysicist's world view, which was similar in some respects and quite different than that of Peter Kalmus in other respects, may I call your attention to Andrew J. Galambos. Here are two articles that touch briefly on his views. A Google search will turn up more. http://voluntaryist.com/how... and here: http://harrybrowne.org/arti...
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