Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

Chosen Domain 101trol of the volume and allocation of new industrial investmentrather than give it wholly to entrepreneurs.Finally, however loud their commitment to the marketsystem, entrepreneurs are highly motivated to seek—andwin—a great variety of state protections for their own markets,protections that sometimes strengthen the marketsystem but often restrict it. Italy, for example, has been operatingunder a complex licensing and regulatory systemthat has protected small, especially family, businesses frommarket rigors. Permits are required in order to establish abusiness and for each of various categories of products to besold. Hours of work and scheduling of midday closings andvacations have also been governmentally controlled. Moreconspicuous protective dikes in any market system are tariffsand other curbs on imports, as well as outright subsidiesto the petroleum, mining, and agriculture industries—forthat matter, to many dozens of industries. They all have theeffect of weakening the ordinary market direction of production,justified or not by their contribution to strengtheningentrepreneurial initiatives. Taken together, they oftenrepresent a widespread slapdash introduction of centralplanning, a shunting aside of the conventional market systemless by central direction than by central misdirection.And they narrow the range of market choice for both sellersand buyers.Almost all these reasons for curbing the market are inprinciple good reasons. But they do not specify a correctchoice between market system and alternatives; they onlyalert us to circumstances in which the choice is worththinking about. Whether, for example, blood or body partsshould be bought and sold is a question that has no right answer.The appropriate answer depends on such factors aswhat people value, their attitudes toward risk, and their