What is
Market Triumphalism?
Overview:
According to Collins Dictionary,
“triumphalism refers to the behavior which celebrates a great victory or
success, especially when this behavior is intended to upset the people they
have defeated”.
Market
Triumphalism seemed to be a big issue since a long time back. The social value
being dominated by market values is Market Triumphalism.
It
refers to the tendency of managerialism, privatizing, and marketizing every
dimension of life. This includes assigning a price to personal relations,
health, education, justice, environment, elections campaign, civic life which
was not priced in the past.
Professor
Michael Sandal of Harvard University used the term “market triumphalism” to
describe “not only a set of policies but a way of thinking arising from a basic
assumption… that markets are the primary instruments for achieving the public
good.” According to him, "this tendency gave rise to the 2008 financial
crisis in the US".
This
is the end of market triumphalism: Michael Sandel
History
shows evidence that extreme liberal economic ideas influence policies and
institutions that regulate the market and economic activities.
These
liberal economic ideas have self-opinionated belief in the total potential of
the market forces. The traces of these events began to appear from the last
decade of the twentieth century (the 1990s).
These
sacrilegious beliefs dominated the market. The principle behind this is, to
commoditize the production of goods, and services by overriding the essential
human social activities.
Marketability,
profitability, growth, survival, market forces, market values, etc. dominate
the social values.
This
incident is opposed by professor of philosophy of governance and sociology at
Harvard University, Michael Sandal.
He
authored a book that challenged the ethical limits of the market forces.
The
book further highlights that greed for profit should not the commitment of
social responsibility.
In
the 12th World Knowledge Forum (WKF 2011) professor said, " While markets
are very valuable for organizing production activity, markets by themselves
cannot deliver an answer to questions of what is just."
Some
of the real-world examples of market values over social values include:
1.
Extreme commercialization of education, healthcare, and service
sector
2. Facebook accused
of selling users information
3. Paid
blood donation programs
4. Carbon
emissions quota/Regulatory Credits being traded for definite prices. The
relevant example for this could be taken as Tesla which
trades the regulatory credits.
Watch the secret business model of Tesla here to know about
regulatory credits:
The rationale behind the financial 2008 crisis
Analysts
and Accountants argue deregulation in the financial sector, privatization, weak
watchdogs, excessive trust in financial experts and institutions, low-interest
rates, and significant mortgage loans were the prime reasons for the 2008
crisis.
According
to Professor Sandal,
"There
are circumstances where the market serves the public welfare, and there are
also circumstances where they don't.
The
financial crisis of 2008 arose after three decades of 'Market Triumphalism'- a
widespread faith that markets and market mechanisms are the primary instruments
for achieving the public good.
The
market triumphalism faith and the tendency to turn everything into a commodity
have been gathering force since the 1970s and early 1980s. The arrival of
Margaret Thatcher and Ronal Regan signaled a growing faith in markets."
Conclusion:
The market should be well regulated by the state to ensure that social
values are not influenced by the market. Or at least government policies should
ensure that such influences are reduced to a minimum.
The politics, government, government policies, economic policies
should not promote market triumphalism.
The market and the market participants should be made socially accountable
and responsible through proper governance and regulation.
The policies should be effectively implemented to counter the bad
sides of market triumphalism
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