The latest Forbes includes Steve Forbes‘ thoughts about the power of freedom to “outfox control freaks.”
During the Depression states passed numerous so-called fair-trade laws to prevent “murderous” price discounting by merchants. After World War II Eugene Ferkauf opened the E.J. Korvette chain of stores, which discounted the prices of appliances. People loved the low prices, and fair-trade laws fell by the wayside.
Today the Internet is undermining anticompetitive practices in education and health care. …
… In the aftermath of the ObamaCare fiasco you’ll see challenges to the Soviet-style regulations that inhibit competition in health care. Most states, for example, won’t let you open a hospital or clinic without some regulatory commissar giving you a “certificate of need.” As University of Chicago professor John Cochrane put it recently, “Americans will know there’s a healthy market when hospitals post prices on their websites.”
The legal profession is also starting to get hit by the whirlwinds of what Joseph Schumpeter called creative destruction. There’s a proliferation of legal apps that show you how to write wills and take care of other such tasks without the bother and expense of an attorney. There will soon be numerous businesses with low-paid lawyers manning call centers to answer any questions.
