Oliver “Mertantilism tended to be more protectionist than is market capitalism.”

Indeed but what evolved was the stock exchanges and share markets and form of company incorporation which we use today, albeit with a little more “regulation” than a Manrchs scrawl on a piece of parchment.

I repeat...

Limited Liability protects the investor, not the entrepreneur

Although I have observed circumstances where the $10-shelf company has been used to separate the entrepreneur from the liabilities of his venture... and then it becomes a case of

“Creditor beware”

So I use directors guarantees as standard

As for Marx and him not seeing what happened in Russia

Well two things

1 He thought it would be in UK not Russia

2 despite the call of foul, the outcome is always the same.. revolution (ie not democratically installed) followed by mass murder, torture and starvation.

You cannot isolate “Marxist theory” from the real effects of its practical application,

That is classical “academic think”, to isolate the cosy-notions of the wannabe cerebral thinker from the reality of his failed and flawed thinking.....

It remains and always will remain

the maggot which turns into the diseased laden house fly.

Benq... yes I do so like A Day at the Races and the generous application of the double-entendre, alot more fun than the gulags and killing fields of Marxism

Of course whilst there is some physical similatity betwene Lenin and Lennon the real difference is in what they could

imagine.....

Lennon put his to tune

and in Lenins case, it was the dreamings of a mass murderer

Stern,

"Limited Liability protects the investor, not the entrepreneur"

Yes, I can see this happen as your state: e.g., Nominee Companies.

Directors' and GX guarantees often depend on the size/nature of the project. While Energy Australia might back scores of subies on a billion dollar project someone spending say $10,000 have their house repainted wouls soon see the back of the transperson if asked for a dictors' guarantee.

"He thought it would be in UK not Russia"

So would I. That was the point. Leglisation achieved in the UK what didn't happen in Russia. Nicholas II kept wavering on Constitutional matter.

When last in Russsia my wife and I hire t Hotel's car, driver and a guide. We were shown a spot where in April(?), 1917, before the October Revolution, where the police were called-out to quasing protesters. Then the Army (drawn from the lover class). What happened was the army turned on the police, backing the protesters. Recall, WWI there may have been one rifle for every three soldiers going over top. If the one with rifle was hit, another would pick up the weapon. The Revolution didn't need Marx.

Stern,

/cont...

... and the limited companies controlled by the Nominee companies. Happy to agree the investor is being protected.

Moreover, Henry Ford would say: "Business? It is the effective use of other people's money". Ford understood the difference between the entrepreneur and the investor as you point-out.

Collectivism takes many forms: e.g., buying (in bulk) co-operatives. Recently, the WA Mining Industry co-operated against the Super-Profits tax. In the 1940s, industry rallied together against the Australian Government over the nationalisation of Banks.

OPEC interferes with market processes as does De Beers.

I see both the Left and the Right interferring with Market Mechanisms. People will act in their own interests (Adam Smith) and Capitalism (too) must be tolerant of mild criminalities (Max Weber)

Oliver

thankyou for your response, much of which I agree with

"OPEC interferes with market processes as does De Beers."

I see both the Left and the Right interferring with Market Mechanisms. People will act in their own interests (Adam Smith) and Capitalism (too) must be tolerant of mild criminalities (Max Weber)"

The operation of monopolies works against the intentions of libertarian capitalism....

I would note, an OPEC or De Beers cartel has alot more in common with collectivist monopolies than the spirit of Adam Smith

Regarding tolerating criminalities

the rewards of crime are sufficient to ensure that all economic models are vulnerable to criminal activity.

Capitalism would see the resolution as a public thing

Collectivists will prefer the cover-up

Personally, I recognise imperfections not as something to avoid at all costs but something to consider as any other cost/benefit analysis.

The Institute of Risk Management deal with many such calculations.

And sometimes the "risk" is not worth the cost of avoiding it

Stern,

Thanks for your comments.

I agree with essentially everything you say. Only to add akin with Weber, Samuelson notes of material progess needs to be tolerent of dishonesty and curruption" (Samuelson in S. Gordon Redding):

e.g.,The ACCC seems to turn a blind eye I to "No return signs" in reatil stores not having the consumer rights qualifier. Cash payments from cash incomes. the puffery clause TPA and the ability to lobby government re-legislate, if fines are too high:

Regarding the latter, I recall, a company being fined $100,000 seven (?) times for putting the heart fundation tick on a product that had no such endorsement. It was fined $700,000. After lobbying, the every instance provision was dropped, by the leglislators.

In the US, in the first half of the twentieth century, GM would buy- up city rail networks and shut them down (to increase car sales) and was fined a few thousands of thousands of dollars for this dubious practice.

Oliver... Re GM....

does the punishment fit the crime....

rarely in commercial matters but the world is not a fair place.

It is a case-book study concerning the Ford Pinto petrol tanks and the tale of the strategy adopted by Ford, that Ford decided on the results of risk analysis to pay any court settlements rather than do a recall / refit of the defective tanks.

Such are commercial imperetives....

However, for as bad as that might seems, if it is a government whose negligence results in death and maiming it is swept aside....

talking of which

has any compensation been paid to the personnel who died installing Garretts roof insulation?