Comments on: Free Enterprise? http://blog.mischel.com/2008/12/29/free-enterprise/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:24:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Phil Wood http://blog.mischel.com/2008/12/29/free-enterprise/comment-page-1/#comment-4915 Phil Wood Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:36:12 +0000 http://blog.mischel.com/?p=347#comment-4915 Just a thought. You mentioned that the 'game is rigged in favor of the party with the most money' referring to the courts. I agree. If this fault was rectified it might help laissez-faire capitalism. A simple (possible simple-minded) suggestion is to require both sides to approve each others lawyers. If they cannot, then both use state provided lawyers. Of course no law firm would ever let this become law, so I am really just pie-in-the-sky dreaming. However the basic idea of redressing the inherit imbalance in the court system in order to allow people with small amounts of money to defend their rights against people with large amounts of money would encourage companies to act in enlightened self-interest Just a thought. You mentioned that the ‘game is rigged in favor of the party with the most money’ referring to the courts. I agree. If this fault was rectified it might help laissez-faire capitalism.
A simple (possible simple-minded) suggestion is to require both sides to approve each others lawyers. If they cannot, then both use state provided lawyers.
Of course no law firm would ever let this become law, so I am really just pie-in-the-sky dreaming.
However the basic idea of redressing the inherit imbalance in the court system in order to allow people with small amounts of money to defend their rights against people with large amounts of money would encourage companies to act in enlightened self-interest

]]> By: Michael Covington http://blog.mischel.com/2008/12/29/free-enterprise/comment-page-1/#comment-4832 Michael Covington Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:07:34 +0000 http://blog.mischel.com/?p=347#comment-4832 Maximum freedom comes from the right amount of regulation, not from the absence of regulation. That idea apparently goes back to Aristotle, though he didn't put it as succinctly. If there is too little regulation, someone other than the regulators will take away your freedom. It has also been argued that stockholder-owned corporations have a built-in incentive to maximize short-term rather than long-term profits. I'm not sure I fully understand this one but would like to hear more about it. And here's another idea. The banking collapse of 2008 followed about 20 years of postmodernism (relativism) being drummed into everyone in college. Were our banks run by a generation of people who honestly thought there are no hard facts and it's OK to believe anything you wish? Maximum freedom comes from the right amount of regulation, not from the absence of regulation. That idea apparently goes back to Aristotle, though he didn’t put it as succinctly. If there is too little regulation, someone other than the regulators will take away your freedom.

It has also been argued that stockholder-owned corporations have a built-in incentive to maximize short-term rather than long-term profits. I’m not sure I fully understand this one but would like to hear more about it.

And here’s another idea. The banking collapse of 2008 followed about 20 years of postmodernism (relativism) being drummed into everyone in college. Were our banks run by a generation of people who honestly thought there are no hard facts and it’s OK to believe anything you wish?

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