Rich pantry raiders
Re: “Exploiting good will”, (PostBag, May 14).
In reality, Jason, every country is a planned economy to some extent and also has some closed markets — look at the subsidies offered, and tariffs imposed by the US to protect its farmers and steel producers, not to mention the common external tariff of the EU.
You really do need to understand and accept the fact that free market economies do not exist, never have and cannot in reality — they are a theoretical abstraction. All economic systems in the world are mixed economies, with varying degrees of central government planning and more market-based forms of production and consumption, which are themselves subject to government intervention, with firms paying tax, receiving grants, soft loans and subsidies, and government incentives and sanctions to reduce spillover effects, such as pollution and other market failures, etc.
To say that, “the history of heavily socialist states clearly warns that abuses will only increase as people’s resources deteriorate” might rightly upset the citizens of most Scandinavian countries — which are heavily socialist states, but who come out at the top in happiness indices and are very well-run economies.
Inequity in the distribution of income and wealth — a hallmark of the type of capitalist system we currently adopt — creates desperation for the poor, and hoarding and crime by the rich in predominantly free-market economies. The rich hoard homes in different countries, hoard a collection of cars as a hobby, hoard art treasures and diamonds, etc, and still can afford to seek ways to avoid (legal) and evade (illegal) paying their fair share in taxes on their obscene amounts of income and wealth, by making use of offshore accounts and banks that will willingly launder their cash.
So, Jason, if like me, you want to complain about the raiding of community pantries in Thailand please realise it has more to with corruption than because it is a state-run initiative per se, and that it is the rich who are the biggest beneficiaries of corruption, whether they be in the government or private enterprise. It is also the result of persistent poverty and massive inequality of income and wealth — the by-products of government inaction to modify the workings of your beloved, mythical free market!
GMT