If companies continue to battle over dollar and efficiency, is that a bad thing? Is profit a bad thing, or is it an indication of more needed investment by the private sector into a particular industry? Is there such a thing as a monopoly other than patents that run out, or do only governments create true harmful monopolies?
2007-02-28 06:24:54 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
It isn't perfect, but to demonstrably view the differences between a free market economy and controlled socialistic economies, you need only view the stark differences between West Germany and the former East Germany, or North Korea and South Korea, or for that matter, the former USSR vs. USA. The profit motive simply works whereas government mandates results in empty shelves and low income.
2007-02-28 06:33:40 · answer #1 · answered by Golfer 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The competition between companies is a good think! A competitive environment is an evolving environment. But, when you have less qualified and with lack of talent personnel, you will have corruption. That is because less qualified persons imply other means to gain profits and recognition for their jobs. That is a human driven side effect of competition. The governments on the other hand they do not support monopolies and that is because they do not want the responsibility of such a decision. The monopolies occur as the marketing strategy of "private sector" investors. By that way, they try to maintain the flow of profits.
2007-02-28 14:43:02 · answer #2 · answered by filip 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Corruption can be bred anywhere. The idea of profit is not a bad thing in and of itself because it encourages people to take risks and develop new products/technologies, all with the idea that they will be properly rewarded for their efforts if their product or technology sells. Contrast that with a market where the means of production, development, and technology are controlled by the Government -- there is no reward for doing a better job or coming up with new ways to do things or developing innovative products/technologies, so what eventually happens is the hardest worker only works as hard as the laziest among us because there's no incentive to do better. That's what happened in the former Soviet Union, and that's why communism and socialism just don't work. But a competitive market is not ALL good. We've seen with the collapse of Enron and ImClone, not to mention scandals with CitiCorp and Tyco (I could list more, but it would be a LONG list) that people who get into the higher executive echelons believe they are entitled to salaries, stock options, and retirement packages that amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per year. We're not talking about people like Bill Gates who started his own company from nothing -- we're talking about people who are CEOs with businesses that were established long before they came around, and all of a sudden they decide their services for the company are worth nine figures a year?!?!! Gordon Gekko was wrong -- greed is NOT good because it destroys lives (not just the greedy CEOs but the companies they bring down and all the employees who lose their jobs, their benefits, their 401(k) accounts, etc.).
2007-02-28 14:37:50 · answer #3 · answered by sarge927 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Markets do not breed corruption, neither do businesses or governments.
These are all tools. Inanimate objects that are neither good or evil. The people that use the tools choose whether to use them for good or evil.
Monopolies are bad, and government is the ultimate monopoly. That is why government must be limited to only the bare essentials.
2007-02-28 14:40:41 · answer #4 · answered by Aegis of Freedom 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Fully free markets create monopolies eventually, and more often than not those same companies are ripe for corruption. Look at the defense industry and it's history of bribery. Look at how few there are now after mergers and buyouts.
2007-02-28 14:32:41 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Competitive markets are great for the consumer.
Yes you will get companies who try and gain unfair advantages over their competition. And thats why we have antitrust laws.
But you will find more corruption in price regulated markets.
How many times have you seen how a regulated utility company is being investigated , sued for overcharging and the like.
2007-02-28 14:30:19 · answer #6 · answered by sociald 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just the opposite, non-competitive (i.e. monopolies) breed corruption
2007-02-28 14:28:15 · answer #7 · answered by Rick 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, Republicans do.
2007-02-28 14:27:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋