! ………. A Quest for Ideology? !………………..! (A Response to Some Concerns on ‘Free Market Economy’ : 10 points) (Point 1) The objective of any society (under their state) is to bring development. Development entails, among other things, economic growth and democracy (freedom). Economy and freedom are complimentary. In order to achieve economic freedom, individual citizens must earn some gain from the global market. ……………..1 (Point 2) The global market by its very nature is ‘free’, and it can’t be otherwise. This is because of the fact that the global order to anarchy. Anarchy entails that there is no world government that regulates global interaction. The law of the jungle gives guidance- the fittest survives. Therefore, competition is the rule of the game………………………….2 (Point 3) Competition presupposes owning resources. Resources are given by nature –the environment and hence they are natural resources. When human beings make use of them for survival they become economic resources. When these economic resources are owned, they become property. And property is always a private. (Therefore, the private versus public property is mere illusory…………..3 (Point 4) Human beings own resources –property- according to their fitness and/or power. If an individual alone has the power to own a given resource; it is his own. If it is beyond the power of the individual to own it, groups of individuals do it and it is now the property of the group. It is now community or organizational property. It means that it is the private property of the group again. If it is beyond their power, a large mass of society owns it. These large mass of society constitutes a state. That state owns it privately. It is the private property of the state. If a given economic resources is beyond the power of a state, it is the property of the whole world. It is a global common. It is the private property of the world. If it is beyond the power of the world society, it will remain un-owned -a potential natural resource. Therefore in the global market, the power of human beings to own resources matters………………4 (Point 5) The power of human beings to own economic resources entails the capacity of the individual(s) to take and protect the property privately. Individuals engage themselves in competition –market- in order to take economic resources and hire guards and/or police, court -the state machinery. The guards protect the private property of individual(s) and the state takes care of the private property of the large mass of the people. Human beings need the state to protect their private property as the big fish eats the small one. (Note; hence, the state versus market division is illusory). Therefore, the base for the interaction of human beings is private property………..5 (Point 6) Why do we need to own property privately? The answer is simple; because we, human beings, are political and/or social animals. Human beings are social in that they interact with each other and political in that they need to exercise influence upon others -in their interaction -in order to promote and/or sustain their own power. Hence, interaction takes place based on political economy. Politics is the process of exercising influence up on others –the people- in order to create their own peace i.e promoting and/or sustaining their power. Power is the capacity to enjoy nature –physical or spiritual. …………6 (Point 7) In the contemporary capitalist system, the power of human beings is manifested through matter -the economy. Even the name capitalism is derived from the term “capital” which means money invested to make more money. This is also termed as capital accumulation which is the inherent motive of augmenting or promoting power -profit maximization. Therefore, in the capitalist age, human beings interact and compete for power, economic benefits, capital, profit maximization as the base structure is the economy…………………………………………….7 (Point 8) When I say that ‘the global order is anarchy’, the global market is free and competition based, I do not mean that the Americans (Or Westerners) have made it happen. Westerners have proposed tricks to win the game of the global market and order. Yet, the point is that they are free to open or close their markets. No supernatural power can force them to go against their choice. The Western concept of ‘free market economy’ may not (and is not) necessarily be truly free. What is true is the Westerners have adopted it so that they could penetrate to and control every local market. They have done that………………….. 8 (Point 9) The economic philosophy of ‘free market’ under neoliberal thinking seems to be successful (at least from the Western perspective). The point comes, what if we Ethiopians (Africans) follow ‘free market economy’? If we have two options; as to adopt free market or not (may be closed or command), our only sound choice remains to be one; just to follow free market. The second option is irrelevant because it is impossible to escape capitalism. Capitalism demands free competition. Even if we could restrain ourselves from opening our market for some time, capitalism comes by itself to penetrate us. The challenging event is when we open our market to compete with the West; they can easily defeat weak economies as they have been building their muscle for centuries (through ‘liberal economy’) while we are still fragile…………………………..9 (Point 10) Then what shall we do? Can we avoid capitalist competition? No. The best option is to practice ‘free market economy’ within our domain in order to make our businessmen capable of winning the competition of the global economy. It is free market economy that builds strength as it allows free competition. There seems a contradiction that once I said, ‘every competition is free’ and now I am trying to advocate ‘free competition’. Yet, if every competition is free, what is the need to prescribe it? Yes, the first notion works at global or universal level. But at group or state level, ‘competition may not be free’ as there may be government intervention. The state machinery may negatively affect the performance of competitiveness. We should also not be naive to be convinced that the Western notion of ‘free market’ is truly free. Let’s get free both politically and economically…………………..10 Yes, every competition is always free. Yet, in the age of capitalism, your freedom depends on your economic power. It is so!!! (Posted 2 Years ago)
Posted on: Wed, 07 May 2014 14:39:54 +0000
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