A Market Based Approach?
Filed Under: Anything Peaceful
Tags: fatal conceit • local government
I live in a small town, Garner, NC, which is right next to my state capital, Raleigh. There has been tremendous growth in the area. The other small towns are “revitalizing” their downtowns and, unfortunately, my town wants to do the same.In a letter to the local newspaper, the Executive Director of the Garner Revitalization Association claimed that they were using a “market based approach.” What does he based this claim upon?He says, “First, we have enlisted experts to study the market to determine the types of retail, commercial and residential needs that are not currently being met.” So by hiring people to tell them what is “economically viable” they think that their approach is market based.It doesn’t stop there. The Exec. Dir. further states that, “We have limited our planning to include only the amount of each of these products the local market can support – down to the square foot.”So I suppose that only everything down to the square foot will be planned but anything smaller than that can be free! Thus, if you have a 11-square inch company, you can compete openly.Honestly, do they really think that they know how many barber shops are viable in the downtown area? Yes, they really think they do. They know how many coffee shops there can be. They alone can determine the number of bakeries. Yes, this is the same market approach that Stalin used. It is so sad to see that the lessons of history are being ignored in small town America. I guess the size of the town doesn’t matter, because all politicians can fall into the “Fatal Conceit.”
Comment by Jacob Steelman on 12 November 2009:
Paul – Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely even in small town america
Comment by Brian Balfour on 12 November 2009:
I live just south of Paul and saw the same article. In response to the article I submitted the following letter to the editor:Dear Garner-Clayton Record Editors,
John Hodges, Executive Director of the Garner Revitalization Association, attempts to assure readers that his organization is embracing a “market-based approach” to Garner’s downtown revitalization (A market-based approach, Nov. 11).
Hodges blatantly betrays this claim with his own words. In his letter, the word “plan” or “planning” appears ten times.
Indeed, Hodges’ vision of a “group made up of citizens, elected officials and town staff” to develop a “realistic and achievable plan” is the antithesis of a true market-based approach.
The market economy is a process whereby individuals cooperate with each other based on their value judgments of how best to serve each other’s needs, as well as his own. Consumers seek to satisfy their most urgent needs for goods and services at a price they are willing to pay, and producers compete with each other in order to best serve those needs.
The market constantly evolves as individual consumers and entrepreneurs adjust their actions to maximize their gains through mutual cooperation. Coordinating this process are countless decisions made by actors within the market system, decisions made according to each individual’s unique knowledge and preferences. Such knowledge and preferences are often tacitly (i.e. only internally) possessed by these individuals, and therefore unknowable to even the most highly trained “experts” nor transferable to any study.
This process is only disrupted when an external group of “experts” place themselves in the position of attempting to identify “the types of retail, commercial and residential needs” not currently being met. Because the market process, even for a local economy such as Garner’s, is such an inherently complex and unpredictable phenomena, any attempts to plan – “down to the square foot”! – how to anticipate and meet consumer demands is futile.
Enlisting a small committee to develop a “plan” how to direct Garner’s resources fails any logical interpretation of a “market-based” approach.
Comment by Jacob Steelman on 12 November 2009:
The ruling elites in Garner or North Carolina or the United States or the world are always at work attempting to rig the market system in their favor at the expense of the local, state or national taxpayers and market participants. Didn’t Adam Smith and Bastiat tell us this in the 18th and 19th centuries? They always need the state to intervene and force their plans on the populace and market participants at the point of a gun. Why if their plans are so good do they have to use a gun to achieve their objectives? The answer is simple – the market does not want it and were it voluntarily provided a choice would reject it by refusing to support such plans with their money. The ruling elites know this (they are not stupid). So they get their hired guns – local,state or national politicians – to do their dirty work for them.
Pingback by Liberty Alone » Blog Archive » The Fatal Conceit of the ‘free market’ right wing on 13 November 2009:
[...] am reminded of this by a post on the FEEs blog Anything Peaceful which describes the ‘market based approach’ being pursued to redevelop a small [...]