Like I said, I am having a political crisis. I could argue either way, for or against those matters. Does anyone still remember macroeconomic theories? It would help if someone does.
On antitrust, although I agree with Libertarians and Objectivists that it is morally wrong to punish businessman for being too successful in their business and for not really knowing when and how they are violating antitrust laws, I still believe that we must not ignore the overall macroeconomic scheme of things--that monopolies fuel inefficiencies, even if there is pure market freedom. A monopoly would have very little incentive to make a superior product, and they can raise prices on consumers as they wish. Yeah, sure a little start-up company can offset that by trying to compete with the giant company, but the monopoly giant could buy that little start-up, or if the merge is refused by the startup, it can out compete the little company, by selling below the cost of production until that little start-up goes bankrupt. Even assuming that some consumers would make a conscientous decision to not purchase goods from the giant monopoly, because of its unfair business tactics, the giant company would still win, because the average consumer is mostly poor, and can barely make ends meet, and therefore has no choice but to purchase goods that are produced most cheaply, even if it is an inferior product. Then imagine, a giant monopoly taking over or out-competing every company that comes its way, and possibly buying out other industries that are completely unrelated to its modus operandi, just because it has the financial power to do so. In a world without antitrust regulations, I see a huge monopoly taking over all aspects of the market, and creating something similar to a big government, and let's go to the extreme, something like an authoritarian government or dictatorship.
Going back to unfair business tactics, I think anti-dumping laws are just as important as antitrust laws, for similar reasons mentioned above.
And how about engineering and computer hi-tech jobs moving to India? There's a good article on this recently in last week's issue of Time magazine. The reason why our nation is so great is because we have a comparative advantage in financial and technology-related services; and look now 75% of our hi-tech jobs are being outsourced in India. I see a grim future for jobs and wealth if we lose our comparative advantage in that field, and as I see it, no deregulation is going to help.
Sorry, I'm painting such a grim, apocalyptic picture this Monday morning. Actually, these topics would go very well with the discussion so far of "what is government?" And to what extent do we support a limited government?
I'm glad that other people with be there. I'll try to bring a few more Libertarians to discuss as well.
Celine