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Comment by bermanoid

I'm 100% in favor of capitalism, but that's not what you're standing up for. Capitalism doesn't mean you never intervene when disaster strikes, it just means that markets are the engine that drive the economy and you mostly let them function unimpeded. When something threatens the proper functioning of the market itself, a functional capitalist system should intervene (in non-market-based ways if necessary) to keep the flywheel spinning when the crisis passes.

Put another way, laissez faire capitalism might be fine when the system is operating in a normal regime, but most capitalists don't take that as a prohibition on taking action when things like wars or natural disasters strike. All of the usual arguments in favor of letting the market just do its thing break down when you're temporarily in an environment that differs hugely from business as usual, and letting the market decide for itself could end up optimizing for the wrong behavior. Specifically, we probably don't want to allow a natural selection event that cuts so deep that anyone without a 12 month cash buffer goes bust, since if every company operated to maintain that it would not be optimal behavior during the steady state.

parent bermanoid 6 years ago

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