Stefanie wrote:

Decius wrote:
4. Unregulated markets will always select the most desirable social outcome.

First, I'd want to clarify what you mean by "unregulated."

If by "regulation," you mean "creating and enforcing laws & rules under which the participants in a given industry must operate, in the interest of creating level playing fields and protecting investors/consumers from unfair business practices" (my humble definition), then I agree with your inclusion of Conservative Myth #4.

If, on the other hand, you're referring to regulatory economics, in the sense that government actually manages the economy, then I'll probably disagree that it's a myth, depending on what you mean by "most desirable social outcome." You and I might not share the same desired outcome.

I've been meaning to get back to this discussion.

There is a wide distance between a communist planned economy and the sort of regulation that is debated in American politics. There is an ideology on the right that says that regulation is always harmful.... let the market decide, etc... this ideology is applied blindly... to the degree that it is assumed that whatever is desired will be provided by the market (market failures would be handled by charities if only those damn taxes weren't so high), or it is concluded that whatever the market has provided is what is desired. I once debated someone on the subject of healthcare, and when I demonstrated conclusively that average life expectancy is higher in western countries with national heathcare systems he exclaimed that I value human life more than the market... as if you say "how dare I seek to impose a higher value on human life than that which the market would naturally choose." In reality, there are market failures that cannot be efficiently addressed through charities, and the market is not a legitimate objective determiner of what social result is desired by people.

RE: FIVE CONSERVATIVE MYTHS