Tuesday, August 22, 2006

IS IT GLOBALIZATION? OR CRONY CAPITALISM?


IRS Privatization
A big sign to date that we are moving towards a market-state:

...

Given these returns, it is clear that competitive pressures are nearly nill. Of course, this is almost certainly a bastardized system that is allocating contracts to cronies (as are almost all of these public-private boondoggles everyone is touting).

David Cay Johnston. "I.R.S. Hires Debt Collectors." New York Times. August 20, 2006.

It looks like the US implementation of the market-state concept is going to end up relatively badly implemented. What does that mean? Here's what a poorly executed US market-state look like in 15 years: A largely privatized state. Lots of crony capitalism due to a massively corrupted government. Huge disparities in wealth. Oodles of paramilitaries (think in terms of private security firms replacing the thousands of SWAT teams that have proliferated over the last couple of years). Radical increases in poverty. Urban decay on a grand scale. Immigration out of control. Wealth flight (to the Caymans).

The keys to making this work are ruthless efficiency (likely through extremely competitive marketplaces), incorruptibility, fairness (to a fault), transparency, platforms, and viable ecosystems. Anything less and it breaks (fragments) due to: your opportunity is at the expense of my opportunity...

1 comment:

La Teatrista said...

quien eres?
de donde eres
un sueno que habla
de cosas
que llegan a mi corazon

I'm smitten