Twitteretter

I have commented on the inadequacies of free markets in post XXX. It is striking to the observer that countries and even regions most aligned with these philosophies are performing much worse than all others in protecting their citizens from a health crisis like coronavirus. Free market fundamentalists are loath to imposing the wearing of facemasks, or lockdown, on their population. For them, the illusion of an individual’s freedom is more important than safety or the rights of others. The consequences are not only obvious in catastrophic pandemic statistics in Brazil, US or UK, but also for example in the Madrid region in Spain, governed by a particularly fundamentalist cabal of PP politicians. Free marketeers undertake a systematic long term reduction of Health and other Public Safety resources. Its effects on local populations (longer queues, dropping standard of treatment) are blamed on invented pressure from immigration. Alas, this may fool voters, but it does not fool viruses Len...

Free market fundamentalism is a fast spreading philosophy (cult might be a more appropriate noun) built on a specific interpretation of Adam Smith and David Ricardo by Frederik Hayek and Milton Friedman. It prioritises individual freedom and decision making above all else, it believes against significant evidence on the market behaving perfectly to optimise outcomes in the absence of interference and, as a result, it aims to minimise, or even eliminate, the size and influence of the state apparatus. Fundamentalist practitioners put their ideology above all else, including practicality. The consequences of this at a time of difficulty such as the coronavirus pandemic have been devastating. The US, Brazil and UK are topping both the free market fundamentalism tables and the coronavirus catastrophe tables (as they also did with the 2008 financial implosion). Totally free markets may be good for good times, but they once and again prove to be completely inadequate in difficult times Length...