Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Banning Competition

Hayek had this right, and people forget how often the point is illustrated by those we call "conservatives":


There is some justification at least in the taunt that many of the pretending defenders of “free enterprise” are in fact defenders of privileges and advocates of government activity in their favor rather than opponents of all privileges. In principle the industrial protectionism and government-supported cartels and agricultural policies of the conservative groups are not different from the proposals for a more far-reaching direction of economic life sponsored by the socialists. - F.A. Hayek, page 107 , Individualism and Economic Order 

A beautiful example, just beautiful:  good ol' North Carolina may outlaw car companies that try to sell cars directly to customers.  The whole "support your local (car) dealer" thing is interesting.  But this takes it to a whole new level.  Russ and I talked about some of these issues a while back.

Nod to Marc B, who is going to lose his lefty label if he's not careful.
UPDATE:  Marc B., demonstrating he has gone round the bend, sends this photo:

Dr. Evil exists.  In the heart of every Democrat and Republican ever elected anywhere to any legislature.  It just makes so much sense, doesn't it?  Charging all those low prices for high quality stuff?  It's MEAN, that's what it is.  And it must be stopped, before it costs us more jobs.

4 comments:

Marc said...

That's it. I'm stealing the Hayek quote to use it as the opening quote for this paper I am writing on the political economy of agricultural policy.

And I don't know that I was ever enough of a lefty... a fact that has a very high R-square when attempting to explain the events of the last 12 months!

Pelsmin said...

"Those we call conservatives?" Just because politicians call themselves conservative doesn't mean they are, and self-dealing and privilege-defending behavior has nothing to do with conservative ideology. Don't know who "we" is, but I don't call them conservatives.
Most "conservative" politicians are politicians first and "conservatives" only to the extent the tag gets them re-elected. The concepts are bigger than the people, and they don't sway in the breeze. That's the nice thing about objective truth -- it doesn't care who wraps themselves up in labels, it is what it is.

Is there one national politician who is a true pure conservative? I'm having trouble coming up with a name. It may be that you need to combine electoral pragmatism with pure conservatism to get elected, otherwise you end up shaking your fist at the TV instead of casting a decisive vote in the Senate.

Thomas W said...

My first reaction would be to find a legislator to submit an amendment prohibiting any manufacturer from selling directly to the public (if you need a car dealer you obviously need other dealers) and watch the hairs split trying to explain why it's good for one industry but not another.

Politics Debunked said...

The entire realm of healthcare is all about the quest to limit competition. In 36 states most healthcare services and even certain kinds of medical equipment like an MIR require a government granted "certificate of need", like tax oligopolies where new companies need to prove a "need". Doctors limit the number of medical schools and residencies, regulations keep corporations out of healthcare in many places, and on and on throughout the entire healthcare system from products and services to insurance, and Obamacare makes it worse. Myriad gory details with links on this page:

http://www.politicsdebunked.com/article-list/healthcare