Market economy misconceptions
| AN OUTSIDERS VIEW |
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| Ken Fuller |
This columnist often saves articles and news stories with a view to opening or contributing to a discussion based on their content. And sometimes I’ll forget I’ve saved them. This is one of those occasions, although the piece in question is well worth discussing because it illustrates several of the most widespread misconceptions regarding how a “market” economy works.
A year ago, in a column entitled “Business Sense” (Inquirer, Nov. 16, 2010), Conrado de Quiros referred to Lucio Tan’s plan to shed 3,000 Philippine Airlines workers by outsourcing a number of its operations. Although the column referred to this as a “scare tactic,” a year later we see that Tan wasn’t bluffing. But, said De Quiros, the problem “goes beyond Tan… The problem is the general attitude or instinct of capitalists in this country to think of themselves first particularly during hard times, or indeed to use those very hard times as an excuse to employ sweatshop methods of cost-cutting.”.... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111206com5.html
1 comment
magandang punto ito. pag isang intelektwal ang nagsabing wala sa sistema ang greediness kundi nasa klase ng pagkatao lamang ng isang kapitalista ay dalawang bagay lamang--sobrang daming propagadang kapitalista ang pumasok sa utak nito o dili kaya ay sinungaling ito. sa kaso ng tinutukoy na kolumnista, ang mas angkop ay intellectually DISHONEST.......pero hindi ko sinabing kemo nasa kapitalistang sistema ang problema ay hindi mababalanse o masosolusyunan ito.
"A further mistake is the belief that such anti-labor practices are the result of the personal greed or hard-heartedness of the employers concerned. Sure, some of them will fit this description, but others may be abstemious, charitable individuals who, regardless of their personal scruples, will from time to time be forced by the logic of the system to implement anti-worker measures. The capitalist system is governed by the bottom line, not by the desire to deliver prosperity to the greatest number. Excessive personalization of such practices, therefore, simply lets the system of the hook."
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