December 2015
For a healthy competitiveness,
a competitive parafiscality
If...
if unemployment,
if economic and cultural inequalities,
if environmental issues of all kinds,
if market imbalances,
if these concerns, and some others, were vital issues of commercial competition between companies,
would they stay unresolved much longer ?
Against the harmful effects of free commercial markets on our collective lives, while their power surpasses that of authorities, is it not appropriate to use their power itself in the service of the common good ?
Is not it so far as relevant to let competitive markets to realize what, by experience no public power has never been able to complete with its only intervention ?
The stability of nationalized economies has always proved less effective than the instabilities of liberal economies ; this is a natural phenomenon that is observed throughout the living world : because it effectively controls the intrinsic instabilities, the biped is more effective than the quadruped and an human on a bike is more efficient than any species of the animal kingdom.
Extraordinary example to see a standing human.
It is the same for the economy : competitive markets owe their effectiveness to their inherent instabilities.
To block these instabilities by regulations makes them ineffective,
while to value and control them to keep them from harm and destroy themselves optimizes their effectiveness.
The french language makes a difference between "concurrentiel" and "compétitif" which both are alas translated in "competitive". Just as if an anglo-saxon businessman cannot imagine a market without a winner that may take all. This is obviously wrong. In fact this should be always so, wrong !
In a healthy market a winner takes small !
Never Take All should do the Winner,
whatever he would later redistribute .
It would always be too later.
Always the Winner should Take Only Small.
and let nobody ever loose.
In France, employers' unions complain about the lack of competitiveness of their enterprises against foreign competition. They observe that foreign companies do not carry the burden of social protection imposed by législations into force in France. They therefore grow to alleviate these costs, and to reduce sharply the social protection mechanisms and public services that provide them. They also push to reduce the standards that channel their freedom to act outside of the public interest.
Other countries do impose little or no social charges and do impose little or no tax on companies that locate here. They leave free their businesses, free not to sign contracts with their employees, free to dismiss their staff, free of the low wages they grant.
In the context of open markets, companies in these countries and liberals get undeniable competitive advantages, compared to "social" countries. They have the capacity to conquer most of the markets of all countries, including those "social" countries.
It is natural that, all things being what they are, also each one see its own interest as the expression of the general interest. As a consequence businesses of "social" countries wish they become less, for lack of other countries to become more "social".
In contrast to the transnational corporations, wealth and social systems gaps are bargains which they derive the best benefits.
Under current conditions of commercial competitions the worst behaviors constrain all the others to imitate them.
To follow this general trend, the civil societies of countries should only exist for the benefit of enterprises, and these societies should be organized to optimize the services they provide. In practice, although this is not yet formalized in democratic institutions, it looks very much like what is observed.
In good democratic constitutions, it is the opposite that is desired : companies should exist only for the benefit of civil society and should be organized to optimize their services they bring.
In practice, to reverse this enslavement which one observes of civil society to commercial companies, one cannot be fully liberal.
The Communists experiences like other dictatorships have always failed. By removing the pluralities and the competition it generates, they remove to the most creative companies the opportunity to serve their civil societies.
In the ideal order of things, the companies actively serve the local authorities while satisfying their vital interests. These interests are conditioned by their competition.
The issue of competitiveness can be treated differently than by the policy of the worst. It is less a question of morality, than of survival. The subordination of civil societies solely in the interests of businesses in an unregulated competition leads to their detriment, civil war.
The proper order of things do not requires removing free competition, but to organize proper conditions of competition in the markets. Similar to what is done for horse racing where are more or less weighed the stools of jockeys, or similar to what is practiced in motorsport, where regulations change every year, so promote new technical developments. No competitor complains of these practices.
Serve the interests of communities requires that the competitive interests of companies are constantly aligned in the direction of collective interests.
Any business interests are conditioned by the balance of its operating accounts, that are constrained by the conditions of competition on the market.
Whenever the conditions of its competition is evolving, which is a constant phenomenon,any business adapts itself, otherwise his life is in danger. They hate these changes they cause themselves.
If the conditions of competition are complex, introducing multiple factors, rational or not, they lead at the end to a single value, beneficiary or deficit, for each operating account.
Today the conditions of competitions generate convergences of economic interests that are adverse to the interests of local communities.
For it to be otherwise, modifying the conditions of competition is a necessary and sufficient condition, allowing to let the markets operate freely under the new conditions, without the previous drawbacks.
First of all this is not due to compassion that the conditions of competition must grow to reduce unemployment :
This is because it reduces the size of the market on which companies live.
It is therefore justified in the interests of competitors as that of the community to penalize respectively companies that increase the unemployment compared to those that reduce it.
The local authorities have an objective interest in full employment, as it reduces social tensions.
If the conditions of mutual competition were relatively in favor of companies that increase their staff from those that reduce, so they feel it every transaction, immediately, without delay, the companies must mutually adapt their strategies, without waiting, for their survival on local markets. Without further State intervention.
First of all this is not for compassion reasons that the conditions of competition must push to reduce wealth gaps :
This is also because to large differences in wealth correspond great loss of potential markets. The increase of these differences reduces the size of the market on which companies live.
It is therefore justified in the interests of those it as that of the community of relatively penalize companies that increase the wealth gap in comparison with those that reduce it.
The local authorities have an objective interest in small differences of wealth, as it reduces the costs of social protection.
If the conditions of mutual competition were in favor of companies that reduce their own pay gaps compared with those that increase it, so they feel it every transaction, immediately, without delay, the companies must mutually adapt their strategies, without waiting, for their survival on local markets. Without further State intervention.
First of all this is not for compassion reasons that the conditions of competition must push to reduce cultural differences :
The great cultural differences represent great losses of available Professional skills.
Expand cultural differences reduces the market sizes in which companies live.
It is therefore justified in the interests of the competitors as that of the community of relatively favor companies that reduce cultural differences compared to others.
If the conditions of mutual competition are in favor of companies that invest the most in cultural education in relation to other, so they feel it every transaction, immediately, without delay, the companies must mutually adapt their strategies, without waiting, for their survival on local markets. Without further State intervention.
The local authorities have an objective interest in small cultural differences, as this reduces the potential for political instability.
First of all this is not by idealism that the conditions of competition must push to reduce the environmental impacts of human activities :
The reduction of environmental impacts represent large potential markets deposits on which companies live.
It is therefore justified in the interests of competitors as that of the community of relatively favor companies that reduce their environmental impacts compared to others.
The local authorities have an objective interest in low environmental impacts, as it reduces their expenses induced by the catastrophic events they generate.
If the conditions of mutual competition were in favor of companies that minimize their environmental impacts relative to other, so they feel it every transaction, immediately, without delay, the companies must mutually adapt their strategies, without waiting, for their survival on local markets. Without further State intervention.
This is not by an anti-liberal ideology that the conditions of competition must be themselves controlled :
This is because in the absence of regulation, free competition leads to his own destruction, a win always ends up emerging "take all" the market, eliminating or buying its previous competitors and eventually impose its conditions in its market sector.
It is therefore justified in the interest of the plurality of competitors like that of the community, to disadvantage the companies that capture the largest share of their market, mutually in favor of the others.
The local authorities have an objective interest in markets without domination of an economic actors in each market, markets with a wide range of players, as this reduces the economic and social risks of large corporate failures. This induces competitive creativity in the shared interest of businesses and the community.
These are just a few areas of concern for which it is desirable that businesses are put in competition. These are the most important of our time. Although others may be added when a local authority identifies their relevance.
Edit the conditions of competition implies a form of self controlling within the meaning of that term when used by engineers. This discipline requires some rules of art :
It should not be perverted, the objective of controlling should not be affected by the phenomenon it controls.
For its efficiency, a control must have a natural frequency higher or equal to that of the phenomena under its control.
For its efficiency, a control can advantageously get the energy required for its action from the phenomenon it controls.
For his safety, a control should be set gradually so that it also gradually reaches its wished goal.
The example of windvane steering as popularized by the first solo transatlantic races won by Eric Tabarly shows good application of these rules :
If they have a small veil, known as "vane", it is only intended to collect the wind direction. in order to follow the first rule of the art, it should obviously not contribute to the wind pressure on the boat, as this would corrupt the desired ship's heading.
If they have a small spoiler, plunged in the ship's wake, it is to get energy from the boat advance in order to act on the helm, instead of the helmsman, depending of the inclination of the vane.
Respecting the second rule of the art, the vane follows with the desirable dynamical performance, the changes in the wind direction.
Respecting the third best practice, the fin fee on the phenomenon to regulate the energy necessary and sufficient to dominate.
Good practice, depending on the chosen course, the skipper orients the sails as usual ; then respecting the fourth rule of the art, he gradually adjusts the vane direction to keep ship's heading chosen before handing the helm to the windvane steering.
To control the conditions of competition, the rules are similar :
The application of the first rule of art would prohibit ordinary the tax control procedures of the States, which induce fields of conflicting interests.
Applying the second rule of the art involves that a market control should not have a natural frequency lower than that of commercial transactions.
If changes to the conditions of competition should not benefit to the State budget, if the conditions of competition should affect each business transaction as do indirect taxation, they can only be added as a measure "parafiscal" , positive or negative, depending on the behavior of each company. Unlike the value added tax, it may not be reclaimable ; its action is zero-sum.
The penalty of one compensates the bonus of others. The calculation of each contribution or payment is made from the collection of the behavior of all players of each market sector.
For each player, his behavior with respect to each independent criteria is formalized as a vector having as many dimensions as the number of these criteria. The calculation of the length of such a vector provides an assessment of a behavior, allowing their comparison, their classification and the fixing of the retributive or contributory share of each of the actors in their mutual competition.
From a buyer point of view this appears as a modulation of the indirect tax that everyone pays for all purchases. But of this tax, the part that goes to the state remains fixed. The modulation is parafiscal in that it does not affect the State budget, but is favorable to the operating accounts of now more competitive companies : those that are more aligned to the service of the common interest.
The idea is not to make a violent revolution, but to offer an upgrade path to which each one will find advantage ; it is that each of the players can adapt his behavior, as the parafiscal modulation system itself, and learn from its own evolution what is possible to achieve.
While "what" is set, each competitor keeps a large freedom of "how" to realize it.
The markets are as open as they are local, each one with its specificities of collective interest. Adapted to each one, the parafiscal modulation of prices is sufficient to satisfy them, without recourse to protectionist measures to the harmful experiences.
The parafiscal modulation of prices also allows market protection as the community can use it to prevent any market drift to collective self-destruction of its competitors when they mutually reduce too their profitability at the risk of their lives.
Looping a control system away from its set point is dangerous
The adjustment of the amplitude of the modulation of control factors, that engineers called the "gain" must be gradual. If buyers may be early informed of company rankings, their initial effect on prices must be zero, before starting to be progressively amplified criterion by criterion, when the standard deviation of the behavior of competitors is sufficiently tightened in the direction of the general interest, defined under democratic control.
In classical liberal economics, the State requires heavy tax burden much of which are assigned to correct the nuisances resulting from the responsibility of commercial markets. The parafiscal modulation of prices transfers to shareholders the burden of nuisances of their companies. This reduces all the compulsory levies, provided that the State cannot provide subsidies to companies.
The voluntary levies made by companies are always better invested than the compulsory levies by the State. Unlike the latter, they involve their own life.
The required compulsory levies necessary for functioning of the state alone may be reduced to around 16% of gross domestic product, without collective detriment.
16%? is on average what charges the brain of a human on the energy it develops...
But such a control works only on open markets, with wide ranges of offers, multiples and diverses.
All economic activities do not lend themselves to competitive markets, some essential economic activities that impose here and there de facto monopolies, without choice for their users, by public infrastructure that these services entail.
These non-competitive markets are essentially public goods, which no private company should legitimately benefit from exercise the monopoly.
As their uses are inevitable, the royalties they get are so imposed, and only the government is legitimate to levy the tax.
Only that which encroaches on public space requires constant supervision of public authorities, subject to the democracy, without delegation.
A formal separation between public networks and what they convey is necessary to define the separation between the fields of public and private activities. Null route of a network, public by nature, can legitimately be granted to a producer of what this network conveys, be it water, energy, or information ; by paying the price of the use of a network, each producer is entitled to expect quality and efficiency. Unlike services of creation and maintenance of networks, each producer may legitimately be subject to competitive conditions defined for the common interest.
to follow, "Open Letter to Ségolène Royal."
Démocritique
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