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u/battlesnail · 1 pointr/econhw

Communism is nothing like laissez faire (literally meaning "let [them] do") capitalism. Although the United States is touted as a capitalist society we are very far flung from a purely free market system.

Free market implies there is no interference or meddling into any market, whatever that may be. Many people, especially in the US, will say that capitalism is the best system ever invented and that we should allow the market to act on its own because it is the most efficient method of organizing people, capital and wealth. For example, instead of some bureaucrat deciding how much bread should cost and how much of it should be produced the interaction between buyers and sellers of bread will determine the price and quantity produced.

In the USSR there actually was someone in charge of determining how much bread should be made and how much it should cost. But it was not just bread but everything that could possibly be produced was also determined centrally. Communist Russia therefore had a centralized or command economy, as there were a few people at the top deciding how goods and resources should be used and distributed. This, as you may have heard, ended pretty terribly, to put it lightly, for a lot of the people of the USSR and eventually brought on the Soviet collapse of the early 1990's.

So seeing how the many communist states have failed in the past, the reaction of many people is to say that not only is capitalism better than communism, pure capitalism is the best form of economy possible. In my opinion this is definitely not the case. And indeed, the US does not have a pure capitalist, Lassaize faire economy. Social security, medicare, and medicaid are all social welfare programs which aim to redistribute wealth. The FCC regulates television and radio, the FDA regulates food and drug production safety and standards, and the DEA keeps you from doing the 'bad' kind of drugs. There is immigration control and zoning laws. Like you said, countries impose taxes and tariffs on each others goods. The list goes on and on. All of these are examples markets constrained by some type of central agency.

An interesting book about the mix of economic policies and their success or failures is "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism" by Ha-Joon Chang http://www.amazon.com/Things-They-Dont-About-Capitalism/dp/1608193381

u/ohituna · 1 pointr/econhw

Yeah the term "governance structure" is a bit awkward here. I would just assume that the term is to be used synonymously with "gov regulation", "gov legislation", "public policy decisions", "regulatory capture", etc.
Tons of examples here.
FDA is a great example of traditional "iron triangles" of seemingly brain-dead regulations.
More recently, The Dept of Education created the Student Aid Enforcement Division a few years ago which was tasked with stopping taxpayer money from being wasted on for-profit colleges that award credits that are not transferrable, degrees that lack accreditation and graduates that are no better off in terms of employment prospects and are stradled with $40k+ of debt. Work from this division lead to "colleges" like ITT Tech being shut down or greatly reduced in size. However, the current Edu. Secretary appointed a former dean of Devry University to lead this department and they have now acknowledged it doesn't intend to take on these kind of for-profit uni's anymore for the most part.

But this is nothing new though really. The Affordable Care Act was able to bring the pharmacuetical industry to endorse the legislation early on by having lawmakers promise to do nothing to bend the cost curve down with respect to prescription drugs.
Before that, the Dept. of Interior's Mineral Management Service was gutted/staffed by an oil-friendly administration. Their job was to oversee stuff like the strength of regulations of off-shore drilling and inspection of sites. By 2010 the effects of that became clear.

Then their are plenty of more nuanced examples. Think the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the kind of steps that Treasury Sec.'s Paulson and Geitner would push for by saying we need to pump cash into banks to buy investment banks that took too much risk and over-leveraged... but argued struggling borrowers shouldn't be helped because of the moral hazard it creates.

See:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianahembree/2018/05/14/education-department-dismantles-team-that-investigated-for-profit-college-abuses/2/#6b00668c1270

u/Cdn_Nick · 1 pointr/econhw

Jane Jacob's works might be useful. https://www.amazon.com/Economy-Cities-Jane-Jacobs/dp/039470584X Certainly worth referencing, at least.

u/requiem-for-a-nong · 0 pointsr/econhw

I could help with this easily, OP, but I think all you need is a decent or even semi-decent Economics or Microeconomics book to read.

This.

Or this.

Or this.

Any of these books will literally have this in chapters 1 or 2. It's really not that hard.

Let me know how you proceed and then maybe I can offer feedback.

u/mjucft · 2 pointsr/econhw

Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist Strikes Back is available as an audiobook.