An Economics Platform for SoCons

[Foucaulf]

Hoping the perspective in this thread isn't just "let's subsidise these people instead of those people."

Here's five policies to think over. What about free trade, corporate compensation, businesses shutting down on religious holidays, kidney/surrogacy markets and price controls?

[Foucaulf]

I didn't notice DC Al Fine replied to my post, so I should reply now with a fuller explanation.

I shouldn't say that the discussion is bad for focusing on subsidies and transfers, since that kind of thinking is the base of economic thinking on government interventions. The primary question, it seems to be, is nevertheless if social conservatism implies the fate of some institutions and customs should not be determined by market competition.

What DFB or Cathcon have mentioned is just an extreme case of that question.

Applied to DAF's answers to my suggestions, he isn't veering too off script. The orthodox answer to the rent control question is his response. I'd be interested in seeing a SoCon argument for building affordable housing, maybe to minimize the dispersion of people out of the city that would result from a voucher scheme.

The question of whether legislation should ban stores from observing religious holidays is bait for the primary question. A much less trivial question is financial regulation. Should SoCons encourage or clamp down on equity and options markets, and if the markets are too pervasive should government pension plans divest from risky finance, even at the cost of lower returns?

I don't know if there is some SoCon argument against high corporate compensation that isn't just a standard argument against inequality. Maybe reforms to corporate governance will lead to more fruitful discussion.

One last thought, which is specific and speculative. If free trade induces a shift in pornography production out of the country, should the state compensate those with jobs displaced and should it sanction the new country of production?