REALITYBASE

Yesterday I described Marxist economists as one of several groups that predicted the financial crisis and pointed out that Marxists do not think about policy prescriptions to prevent, ameliorate, or recover from such crises because their belief system assumes our economic system is inherently unsustainable and will collapse and be replaced. They say a crisis proves their fundamental beliefs and brings us another step closer to the inevitable.

Today, in an exchange with some folks who seem to be strict anti-government free-marketeers, I realized they too are uninterested in policy prescriptions to prevent, ameliorate, or recover from crises because their belief system assumes that whatever happens in a totally unregulated market system is the very best possible result by their only criterion—it is the result of a free market system. If the results seem bad by some econometric or human measure, that can't be considered because they know free markets produce the most "efficient" results, and any undesirable effects must be due to government interference.

Both groups are functionally deaf (and illiterate too) to discussions about making governments and markets work better, and it's no use shouting. Now that I've taken the trouble to write that down, it seems too obvious to waste electrons on. But how does one communicate effectively with ideologues?