Oh, you mean the strawman that "growth must be accomplished at all costs" without even defining what growth is?
What human action does not produce costs and benefits? If growth must be accomplished at all costs, why do we have any regulation or social safety net at all? Clearly, there are some costs we are not willing to pay.
Yes, some people don't believe in any regulation because it hurts economic growth. But call what we have in the West 'growthism' making straw. You think the Chinese who are suffocating in super-smog storms in Harbin right now aren't in favor of regulation?
People on the Right make the same mistake. They take any regulation or social programs and call it "socialism".
I think these "isms" are bad for studying the problem. We have a complex, mixed economy and boiling it down to bumper sticker isms isn't going to help understand what our problems are.
China isn't lacking regulations or controls. The Chinese Government has dictatorship-like control over all aspects of the economy. They can literally do what they want, when they want. They're lacking enforcement, which is a very different problem from not having regulations on the books.
Companies bribe their way out of enforcement. That's why their cities are suffocating from air pollution. It's the way business is done in China.
It's the way business is done everywhere. My perception is that in the US the 'bribes' aren't paid at the bureaucratic level but at the campaign 'contribution' level. That way the 'regulation' is hobbled before the legislation is passed. And if big business somehow gets hung up in a regulatory/legal issue, a la the banking industry or the oil industry, they pay their fines and it's back to business as usual.
I've started a small business without bribing anyone. Well, I did have to pay a remittance to the IRS to get nonprofit status. Which, is still being processed.
What human action does not produce costs and benefits? If growth must be accomplished at all costs, why do we have any regulation or social safety net at all? Clearly, there are some costs we are not willing to pay.
Yes, some people don't believe in any regulation because it hurts economic growth. But call what we have in the West 'growthism' making straw. You think the Chinese who are suffocating in super-smog storms in Harbin right now aren't in favor of regulation?
People on the Right make the same mistake. They take any regulation or social programs and call it "socialism".
I think these "isms" are bad for studying the problem. We have a complex, mixed economy and boiling it down to bumper sticker isms isn't going to help understand what our problems are.