DEMOCRACY is supposed to be participatory, so the term “participatory democracy” is an oxymoron.
“Free enterprise” could also be an oxymoron if a supposedly democratic government does not regulate the monopoly of big corporations to the disadvantage of small enterprises.
Although government regulation of big corporations might also sound like an oxymoron in a free enterprise economy, there are definitely ways to protect the interests of small enterprises, without violating the democratic rights of the big corporations.
For example, certain low technology businesses and low investment industries could be reserved for small enterprises, meaning to say that these should be off limits to big corporations.
The government should have nothing to do with the law of supply and demand, because it is something that could not, and should not be regulated. However, there seems to be a widespread misinterpretation of this concept, since the government is always implementing price control measures here and there.
In many cases, businessmen who jack up their prices whenever supplies are low and whenever certain products are in demand are often seen as opportunists, if not lawbreakers. More often than not, they are being accused to be hoarders or price manipulators. Sometimes, these accusations are based on the perception that they are selling their products above the Suggested Retail Price (SRP).
As it is supposed to be, an SRP is just supposed to be a “suggestion”, and no one is legally bound to stick to it. As a democratic society, we should be careful not to assign secondary meanings to terms that could mess up our institutions, for example, we hear about ordinary citizens supposedly being “invited” only for “questioning”, but they end up being arrested and jailed, with neither a search warrant nor an arrest warrant.
Every now and then, we hear about small entrepreneurs being arrested for supposedly taking advantage of food shortages, but it seems that their only “crime” if ever is to take advantage of the law of supply and demand.
In reality, the supposed “overpricing” of products beyond the SRPs during food shortages does not even bother the rich people, because it only affects the poor people who could no longer afford these products during those times.
In a way, it could be said that the government would be caught in a dilemma during those times, because it has to choose between the need to make food prices affordable, and the need to promote a free market economy by way of free enterprise.
Since a food shortage situation is only a short term problem while having a free market is supposed to be a long term institution, the government should just subsidize the short term in order to institutionalize the long term. (To be continued)/PN
