samsara15
Well-Known Member
There was never any Golden Age that happened before Teddy Roosevelt, Progressivism, and economic regulation. The Free Market has never existed, and never will...or looking at it another way, whatever market exists is by definition free.
Consider the following list of economic downturns in the US:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions
Including the Panic of 1893, the Panic of 1907, and the Long Depression from 1873-1896, right in the middle of the so-called era of the Robber Barons. This is part of what led to the Muck Rakers and Teddy Roosevelt's regulations.
There have always been scoundrels on Wall Street.
The natural state of the economy is to go from boom to burst.
I will concede this much to Conservative feelings; there is no evidence that regulation has been able to fully control the economy in desirable ways, either, since the same tables also show that the onset of regulation has not stopped the periodic boom and burst cycles.
Some might note that federal attempts at regulation have been ill conceived and ineffective, but they might have worked, had they been thought out better, but has anyone ever understood economic trends well enough to do so?
I would also question if a Free Market is even possible. Perhaps it is only a concept that could not ever exist in the real world.
Consider the following list of economic downturns in the US:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions
Including the Panic of 1893, the Panic of 1907, and the Long Depression from 1873-1896, right in the middle of the so-called era of the Robber Barons. This is part of what led to the Muck Rakers and Teddy Roosevelt's regulations.
There have always been scoundrels on Wall Street.
The natural state of the economy is to go from boom to burst.
I will concede this much to Conservative feelings; there is no evidence that regulation has been able to fully control the economy in desirable ways, either, since the same tables also show that the onset of regulation has not stopped the periodic boom and burst cycles.
Some might note that federal attempts at regulation have been ill conceived and ineffective, but they might have worked, had they been thought out better, but has anyone ever understood economic trends well enough to do so?
I would also question if a Free Market is even possible. Perhaps it is only a concept that could not ever exist in the real world.
