Free Market Fundamentalist is an Atlantic Sentinel blog with an exaggerated faith in the ability of unfettered laissez-faire capitalism to promote opportunity and deliver prosperity. It derives inspiration from Austrian School economics and Objectivism to champion personal liberty, private entrepreneurship and productivity, rational self-interest and limited government.
Renationalizing British Utilities and Rail Would Be a Mistake
High-speed trains at St Pancras railway station, London, England, October 19, 2010 (Matt Buck)
Rising energy rates and railway fares in the United Kingdom are lending credence to the argument that privatization was a mistake.
YouGov last year found majorities in favor of taking energy, water and railways back into state ownership.
Telecom is the exception. Only 30 percent believe it should be run by the government.
The reason may be that the benefits of telecom privatization have been obvious whereas those of other privatizations are harder to discern.
Compared to the 1970s, however, utilities and railways provide a far better service today. Read more
Both Left- and Right-Wing Critics of the NHS Have a Point
A hospital in London, England, February 21, 2010 (Lars Plougmann)
Crises in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) always provoke the same ideological debate: the right blames “socialized medicine”, the left calls for more money.
Neither side is completely wrong.
The Financial Times argues there are too many administrators and not enough frontline medical staff in English hospitals.
Repeated government reforms have spurred fragmentation and only added more layers of bureaucracy.
But “cuts” (really: restraint in the growth of health spending) haven’t helped, especially when the population is aging and requiring more services. Read more
Macron’s Liberalization Has Made Travel More Affordable in France
View of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France (Unsplash/Rodrigo Kugnharski)
Emmanuel Macron’s liberalization of intercity public transport in France is paying off.
Until 2015, railroads had a monopoly on domestic ground routes of 100 kilometers or more. Macron — then economy minister, now president — wrote legislation that allowed busses to compete.
Bloomberg reports that 6.2 million passengers took a long-distance bus in 2016 and bookings are up another 25 percent this year.
That’s still a fraction of the more than 100 million annual high-speed train passengers, but competition from busses is forcing the state-owned railway to cut rates. Read more
Repression Is the Wrong Approach to America’s Opioid Epidemic
American president Donald Trump is seen in Washington DC, January 20 (DoD/Marianique Santos)
One of the few silver linings to last year’s presidential election in the United States was that candidates from both major parties recognized that opioid addiction should be treated as a public-health, rather than a law-enforcement, problem.
Which makes it all the more disheartening that Donald Trump is taking exactly the wrong approach to this crisis.
Politico reports that the new president believes in a “tough law-and-order approach” to arrest the rise in drug overdose deaths.
142 Americans die from opioid abuse every day. That is more than die in car accidents or from guns.
The crisis is concentrated in postindustrial states like Kentucky and West Virginia: the heart of Trumpland. Read more
May Adopts Energy Policy Her Predecessor Called “Nuts”
Prime Ministers Theresa May of the United Kingdom and Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Denmark answer questions from reporters in Copenhagen, October 10, 2016 (The Prime Minister’s Office/Tom Evans)
British prime minister Theresa May has adopted a policy her Conservative predecessor, David Cameron, once described as “nuts”.
When the opposition Labour Party proposed to freeze electricity rates in 2013, Cameron, then the Conservative Party leader, ridiculed it.
Clinton’s Plan to Control Drug Prices Seems Like an Overreach
Former American secretary of state Hillary Clinton gives a speech in Cleveland, Ohio, August 17 (Hillary for America/Michael Davidson)
Hillary Clinton has a new plan to stop what she considers “unjustified” increases in drug prices.
Slate reports that her plan comes down to European-style price control.
As president, Clinton would create a task force of regulators with the power to decide whether price increases on old, essential medicines and devices were reasonable given product improvements and the amount of competition in the market. If not, the task force would have the power to mete out punishments to companies that were trying to profiteer, potentially with fines.
Fines would still require an act of Congress, where market-friendly Republicans are likely to retain their majority in the House of Representatives and block such penalties.
Nonetheless, as Slate puts it, “Clinton is subtly sending the message that she’s comfortable moving toward a more European system in which regulators have a direct say not just in what drug companies can charge the government, but what they can charge the rest of the public, too.”
It may not happen in the first four years of a Hillary Clinton presidency, but price controls are becoming Democratic Party policy — which means they could happen eventually. Read more
Professors Confuse Right Wing for Authoritarian
The Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex in Colchester, England, December 12, 2013 (Alvin Leong)
If you live in the United Kingdom, you may have recently seen headlines like these: “Around 50 percent ‘hold authoritarian views'”.
Nearly one in two Britons is supposed to share opinions that researchers describe as “authoritarian populist”. Read more
