Transgression of Markets
The markets have their flaws and there are a couple problems that can be seen:
- Markets are amoral, meaning they do not guarantee equity of justice in any way.
- The markets produce what the people are willing to pay for, even if these products are not necessarily good for people for the environment.
Probably the best example of the strength of the markets is the fact that illegal drugs are widely available and are cheap, despite all of the government programs that are fight against them in order to stop their production and distribution. While there are benefits in between, you can be sure that there will be a supply to satisfy the demand. But although it is good that the markets are so willing to give people what they are willing to pay for, illegal drugs are a perfect example of the fact that the markets produce things without keeping in mind their social value or the negative effects these can bring about.
In the same way, even though we are given what we want, the producers frequently do things that we not agree with. Child labor and factories that exploit workers are some perfect examples of this. When the system of prices does not administer enough incentive so that the producers modify these objective practices, often times the government has to intervene in order to modify them.
Another big problem with the markets is that they satisfy the people that have the money to spend. The system price offers an incentive to produce only the things that the people can and are willing to pay for. If someone is very poor, they will not be able to provide an incentive to the producers to cover even one of their most basic needs, such as food and medical treatment. Under a system of pure prices, the resources are directed towards the production of things for those that have the money to spend and buy.
A problem that is related with the markets is the unevenness of the income and of riches. Since the systems of the market reward those that have more capacity of providing goods and services that the people want to buy, some sales people end up being very rich because they are very clever about providing what the people want. This brings about great amounts of unevenness in the riches that a lot of people find offensive, even when the money has been made honestly and the very productive people do significant contributions to increase the product and attain the most amount of happiness.
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