Laissez Faire

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I don't view laissez-faire as the best economic system. In fact, under it the economy would suffer and only the big businesses would thrive. Laissez-faire is an economic theory which states that there is an Invisible Hand guiding the economy, thus there is no need for government involvement. The Invisible Hand refers to uncontrolled competition, with greed as the major factor, in fact it is considered by some to be the purest form of competition due to the fact that laissez-faire is basically the economic version of Darwin's survival of the fittest theory. He who is best will prevails, in theory anyway. The theory asserts that economy is capable of being its own guardian. An example of this is when two businesses produce similar products. Laissez-faire supposes that each business will begin to make better and cheaper products in order to overcome its competition and earn more of a profit. As they do that, they will be fulfilling society's need for that product. The businesses are not producing the products out of social responsibility or as a result of some sort of government involvement. Their sole motivator is money, yet they are still producing superior products for less, which is beneficial for the consumers.

I think government should have a limited role in the economy, it should regulate it just enough to keep it stable. In laissez faire big business is basically allowed to do whatever it wants, short of murder without any legal ramifications. If big businesses are allowed to grow unrestrained they will most likely do so until monopolies are the only form of business left. If this happens there is nothing to stop these monopolies from taking advantage of the consumers who in the end would end up having no choice but to s...

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...ople where suffering. The government started taking steps to boost the economy, one of which was the New Deal. It sought to stimulate demand and provide work and relief for the poor through increased government spending. Instituting regulations which ended what was called "cut throat competition" in which large players supposedly used predatory pricing to drive out small players. It also created regulations which would raise the wages of ordinary workers, to redistribute wealth so that more people could purchase products. That is something that goes directly against laissez faire, so in a laissez faire society the government would do nothing and just watch the people suffer. What the government did was more of what Keynes's theory was, that the government should increase spending to help the economy. That is exactly what they did to recover from the Great Depression.

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