Tag: Martin van Staden
Politics & policy | follow winners, not losers
Nationalisation of property, inefficient State-owned enterprises, raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21, and higher taxes in a low-growth environment. These ideas have all been tried elsewhere. And they have failed consistently, with few exceptions.
Constitutional amendment to effect land reform is unnecessary!
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.
South Africa is not capitalist, but needs to be!
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.
Only freedom can stimulate competition
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.
