Tag: Free Market Foundation

The Free Market Foundation is appalled and alarmed that expropriation without compensation of property (EWC), probably South Africa’s most important constitutional debate since the 1996 formation of the Constitution, will have only 45 days for written submissions. It is irresponsible and anti-democratic.

To say that South Africa is a capitalist society is popular among journalists, politicians, and trade unionists. If capitalism is understood to mean a system of free and voluntary engagement without third-party interference, the notion that South Africa is capitalist is false.

Researchers exhorting the South African government to implement the NMW (National Minimum Wage) reported that they could find no studies showing high job losses from the institution of minimum wages. How did they not uncover the link between the 2007 decision to impose the US Fair Minimum Wage Act on the US dependencies of Puerto Rico, American Samosa and the Mariana Islands?

The capacity and need to act in one’s own self-interest is a primordial instinct, irretrievably embedded in the DNA that prescribes human conduct. This is why the experiments of social engineers who seek to ‘create’ the selfless socialist man or woman always end in unmitigated calamity. Self-interest defines human conduct, whether individual or collective. To act in one’s own self-interest does not negate the interests of others, but enhances them.

Mr Ramaphosa, like most South Africans I am relieved that you have ascended to the country’s highest political post. However, you of all people know that you start your Presidency with an economy in deep trouble – and one in which the unemployed have been almost completely ignored.

Governments are often tempted to obfuscate reality through populist promises. South Africa is no different in this regard. For 23 years, health policy has gone from the 1995 policy paper on ‘free healthcare’ for all, to a Social Health Insurance (SHI) proposal in 1999 – hated by labour because it included a payroll tax. By 2004, reality set in. Free healthcare for all was simply not possible.

Competition is not something that can be artificially created. Competition is an inherent facet of human – or living – nature, and thrives most when it is left alone. The notion that government can introduce swaths of laws, regulations, and red tape, like the new Competition Amendment Bill, and not have a deleterious effect on competition and economic growth is naïve.

Michael O’Brien, 17, went in for a driver’s test. The testing official failed him when the fuel light came on 23 minutes after the test started. O’Brien wasn’t happy and filed a complaint. He said it didn’t sound right as the fuel light had nothing to do with his driving ability.

Leon Louw | Executive Director | Free Market Foundation | gailday@fmfsa.org | http://www.freemarketfoundation.com | A contentious new Bill that heralds higher data prices and reduced...