Market abolitionism

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Market abolitionism is the belief that the economic market should be completely eliminated from society. Market abolitionists argue that markets are ethically abhorrent, antisocial and fundamentally incompatible with long term human and environmental survival.

Contents

In large countries in the modern world, the only significant alternative to a market economy has been central planning as was practiced in the early Soviet Union and in the People's Republic of China before the 1990s.[ citation needed ] Other proposed alternatives to the market economy (participatory planning as proposed in the theory of participatory economics (parecon), an artificial market as proposed by advocates of Inclusive Democracy and the idea of substituting a gift economy for a commodity exchange) have not yet been tried on a large scale in the modern industrialized world.[ citation needed ]

Proponents

Michael Albert considers himself a market abolitionist and favors democratic participatory planning as a replacement. Together with Robin Hahnel, he has elaborated a theory of participatory economics, which they see as an alternative to markets. [1]

Notably, Noam Chomsky is one of those who have expressed the opinion that a truly free market (in the context of a sudden transition from the current system) would destroy the species as well as physical environment. He also favors a democratic participatory planning process as a replacement to the market. [2] [ verification needed ]

Criticism

Economists such as Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek and Brink Lindsey argue that if the market is eliminated along with property, prices and wages, then the mode of information transmission is eliminated and what will result is a highly inefficient system for transmitting the value, supply, demand, of goods, services and resources, along with an elimination of the most efficient mode of market transactions.[ citation needed ]

See also

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References

  1. Doszyn, Mariusz (13 June 2004). "Market Madness". ZNet. Z Communications. Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  2. Chomsky, Noam (16 February 1970). "Government in the Future". Chomsky.info. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2013.