by Rick Lowe
"Prime Minister Perry Christie said yesterday the government would consider approving new entrants into into the web shop industry if the gambling referendum is passed, but only after his administration figures out how many participants the market can sustain." Emphasis added. The Nassau Guardian of Tuesday, November 6, 2012.
I wonder how Mr. Christie and his learned friends will figure that out?
Of course society must believe that this is possible or politicians would be laughed out (not voted out) of office.
The market is ever changing as tastes or products vary over time. Hence businesses come and businesses go.
As F. A. Hayek so eloquently told us in his Nobel Prize lecture, "…To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm…"
I'm afraid Mr. Christie, nor his colleagues and not even your not so humble blogger have the capacity to figure out how many "number houses" the market can sustain. That's up to the clients of those institutions.
This appears to be a lack of fundamental understanding of basic economics on the part of our Prime Minister.. I seriously doubt that he has read Hayek or even knows who he is.. So as a consequence our Prime Minister relies on central planning, ignoring the basic laws of supply and demand, to give him what he believes to be an acceptable answer.. Perhaps our Prime Minister should hire a junior economist in his office to tackle such perplexing issues..