Undamped Oscillators and the Free Market
I was listening to an NPR report today on the options for economic stimulus. As usual, there was a free market type arguing that government should stay out of things and let the market take care of it.
Let’s ignore the fact that letting the market take care of it is what got us swirling around this toilet to begin with. I took way too many math classes in college and what I see when people talk about the unfettered market is an undamped oscillator. A system that swings from high to low uncontrollably until disaster strikes and the system collapses. For the canonical example of the problems with undamped oscillation, see this:
That’s what I see the role of the government as. Yes, people will not be able to make as much money as they could without the government putting the brakes on. But neither will the system fall through the floor as it has in the last year.
I am tired of hearing about how smart the market is, how efficiently it operates. Someone is going to have to explain to me how being in the free market makes you a smarter person. As near as I can tell, smart people are in every field (well, maybe not GOP political consultants) and having forces in opposition to each other leads to equilibrium.
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