Regulació versus intervencionisme

Com a resposta al comentari fet al meu post Responsabilitats públiques i privades en el qual se'm demanava un aclariment sobre la relació entre els conceptes "intervenció" i "regulació", voldria contestar amb el següent paràgraf extret de l'entrada Economic interventionism de la Wikipedia:

"Economic interventionism is any action taken by a government, beyond the basic regulation of fraud and enforcement of contracts, in an effort to affect its own economy. Economic intervention can be aimed at a variety of political or economic objectives, such as promoting economic growth, increasing employment, raising wages, raising or reducing prices, promoting equality, managing the money supply and interest rates, or addressing market failures. The intervention may to direct, or indirect as in the case of indicative planning. When this economic planning is extensive, the economy is referred to as a planned economy".

És especialment aclaridora, al meu entendre, la primera frase. Així doncs, "regulació" sí, depèn i sempre amb mesura i criteri econòmic, però "intervencionisme" no, mai.

Europe picture

"We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork".

Milton Friedman

... in Europe that is painfully real.

Great advances in civilization without "help"

"The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government".

Milton Friedman

Take this into account in looking for "solutions" to the current crisis.

Free lunch?

"There is no such thing as a free lunch".

Milton Friedman

... but many people ignore that. Why?

Individual freedom

"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom".

Milton Friedman

These words are so obvious that I am not capable to add any comment to them.

Bailouts. They're not all the same

Please, stop comparing the bailout of banks and financial institutions with the one of the automotive industry. They are not comparable.

Imagine a body in which the financial system is the heart and the automotive industry is an irreversible gangrenous foot whose harmful effects might spread up the leg to the vital organs. Is it reasonable to save the heart? Yes. isn't it? What would you do with the foot? Would you sever it or either would you try to "save" it by taking some pain killer?

Come on. Stop demagoguery. Please.

... if we only were allowed to be free (to choose)

"Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain at the expense of another".



In this coming Dark Age for freedom it is not a bad idea to remember some words from Milton Friedman.


New solutions for the current crisis are at hand. Never doubt about it... if we only were allowed to be free (to choose).