Free Market Failures

[Richard_A_Garner]

I am not denying that this too contributed to the problem. But without immigration this bubble would never have started because the demand wouldnt have been there. Cheap credit could only turn an existing demand into mortgages.

Of course the bubble would still have occurred. If you give people money to buy what they previously couldn't afford, then they go buy what they previously could not afford.

[Blazing Star]

Housing should be left entirely to the free market. Unfortunately, it hasn't been, thanks to planning controls.

That will be an end to our countryside, then.

I take it that you would be happy to live in a concrete jungle?

[Britt Andrew Prowd]

That will be an end to our countryside, then?

I take it that you would be happy to live in a concrete jungle?

I have already had a nice little debate with Richard Garner on this thread

In it he mentioned (about the British Countryside)

I said nothing about condoning anything, and I said nothing about not caring about the countryside. I said that if you care about the countryside as it is, buy it and leave it as it is. If consumers prefer apples to organges, spending on apples will be higher than on organges, meaning that there will be more money to be made supplying apples than oranges, meaning suppliers of fruit will try to supply more apples than oranges. Likewise, if consumers prefer \"pastures green\" to housing estates, spending on pastures green will be greater than on housing states, so suppliers of land will try to supply more pastures green than housing estates.

SOURCE: A post on this page: http://www.democracyforum.co.uk/libe...te-lpuk-5.html

So I presume so.

[flamingreen]

Richard is one of these silly free marketeer in extremis types who is devoted to it as a monk is to his god.

The trouble is these free market theories sound all very clever on paper but do not work in the real world where so many factors are operating that intefere with its predicted smooth running.

[Richard_A_Garner]

That will be an end to our countryside, then.

I take it that you would be happy to live in a concrete jungle?

Is demand for countryside inherently lower than demand for housing?

[flamingreen]

I dont think wildlife demands enter into the markets calculations somehow.

[Richard_A_Garner]

Richard is one of these silly free marketeer in extremis types who is devoted to it as a monk is to his god.

The trouble is these free market theories sound all very clever on paper but do not work in the real world where so many factors are operating that intefere with its predicted smooth running.

It is precisely because of things people cannot predict occurring that we are better off leaving things to the market. Nobody can possibly have the knowledge required to centrally plan the economy efficiently... which is why it is nonsense to assume that you, and advocates of planning like you, think you can tell what usage of a plot of land there is the greatest demand for from outside the market, from outside revealed preference, and respond appropriately.

[Richard_A_Garner]

I dont think wildlife demands enter into the markets calculations somehow.

On the contrary, there is a whole burgeoning branch of economics devoted to it, and a quick google video search will get you a neat clip from Daniel Hannan explaining a fundamental aspect, with empirical support, to the socialists running the EU.

[flamingreen]

have you got a link?

[Britt Andrew Prowd]

On the contrary, there is a whole burgeoning branch of economics devoted to it, and a quick google video search will get you a neat clip from Daniel Hannan explaining a fundamental aspect, with empirical support, to the socialists running the EU.

I don't get why he is with the Tories. He is so much more a Libertarian.