I agree that pure laissez-faire is an abstraction; worse, in practice, it would probably resemble something out of of Thomas Hobbes.
Nonetheless, the answer to inequality caused by (relatively) free markets is a degree of redistribution, not killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Right now, borrowing stands in for taxation, but the US will have to face that choice eventually.
The problem with "buy American" or like-minded industrial policies is that (a) the principle is susceptible to politically motivated abuse, and (b) favoring your favorite industries entails tariffs and artificial pricing which exclude beneficial imports and hurt both consumers and most producers without guaranteeing adequate supplies of the favored product. The better answer to that is to build alliances with like minded countries as sources of necessary imports.
Who is killing the goose that laid the golden egg? I haven't been seeing that happen.
There is always politically motivated abuse. If we didn't do things for fear of politically motivated abuse, we would do nothing. Most of current tax and industrial policy is a result of various corrupt practices (even if legal, they are still corrupt).
You can do a mixture of things to meet your desired goals--provided your desired goals are more than making money as quickly and in as large a quantity as possible.
I agree that pure laissez-faire is an abstraction; worse, in practice, it would probably resemble something out of of Thomas Hobbes.
Nonetheless, the answer to inequality caused by (relatively) free markets is a degree of redistribution, not killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Right now, borrowing stands in for taxation, but the US will have to face that choice eventually.
The problem with "buy American" or like-minded industrial policies is that (a) the principle is susceptible to politically motivated abuse, and (b) favoring your favorite industries entails tariffs and artificial pricing which exclude beneficial imports and hurt both consumers and most producers without guaranteeing adequate supplies of the favored product. The better answer to that is to build alliances with like minded countries as sources of necessary imports.
Who is killing the goose that laid the golden egg? I haven't been seeing that happen.
There is always politically motivated abuse. If we didn't do things for fear of politically motivated abuse, we would do nothing. Most of current tax and industrial policy is a result of various corrupt practices (even if legal, they are still corrupt).
You can do a mixture of things to meet your desired goals--provided your desired goals are more than making money as quickly and in as large a quantity as possible.