We need to maintain law and order. We need to maintain peace in the world. We need to protect the environment. We need to have some degree of social justice, equality of opportunity. The markets are not designed to take care of those needs. That's a political process. And the market fundamentalists have managed to reduce providing those public goods.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Markets cannot solve all societal needs like peace, environment, and justice; government must handle these through politics.
- In plain terms
- Business markets won't fix big social problems, so politics needs to step in.
- What can you take from it?
- Governments must provide public goods markets ignore.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What public goods does your society lack?
- How should government balance markets and justice?
Another view
Government interventions can also fail to deliver these needs effectively.
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