Ventajas del mercado libre

Many attempts to discredit free market economics have been made by many writers. However, most of them inadvertently actually provide sufficient evidence of its efficacy as an economic system forAfrica. Many proponents of a socialist system envy the European model of social welfare systems but forget to point out that economically many run market systems that allow competition amongst theprivate sector. The capitalist system is efficient precisely because it generates wealth and jobs which in turn provide tax revenue to Government to provide the social welfare schemes we would like for poorcountries in Africa to copy. Some of the countries cited as examples (Britain and Scandinavian countries) are some of the most well run free market economies with huge multinational firms, like, BP,Nokia, Philips, British Airways, and KLM to name but a few originating from those same countries.

More importantly, Britain is the MOTHER of privatization and deregulation. It should also be notedthat even though privatization in Britain started under the Tories (Conservative Party) the current Labour government has not reversed this process. In fact, Labour has extended privatization to thehealth, social security and education sectors successfully. More importantly, the Labour Government soon after taking power in 1997 immediately imposed a “windfall” tax on UK utility companies as away of financing social programmes aimed at creating new jobs.

Donor agencies from the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands are the biggest proponents of so called “pro-poor” market reforms in Africa. DFIDis financing a major part of Africa’s public sector reform; SIDA is financing the financial sector reforms in Africa, while the Dutch are the major financiers of the agriculture sector and privatesector development reforms. Free market economic systems are the best way for a country to create wealth and get out of poverty. If we look at the top ten countries based on the UN Human Development...