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Critique
by Lord Howell
"Socialism or Capitalism? This age-old dilemma has dogged the world for decades - to the point where it seemed unsolvable.
In a blistering analysis of conventional market economics, Mark Dixon confronts head-on the failure of the so-called free market economy to deliver fair results or heed real consumer wishes, the failure of so-called regulators to unravel useless and stifling regulations in the real interests of both producers and consumers, and the failure of companies to rid themselves of unconscious bias and permit genuine merit to prevail in employment throughout the production and supply system.
His answer is a three-pronged assault on past fallacies inherent in the 'old' free market in which we live and embedded myths. His replacement is 'The Fair Market Economy', which truly delivers results, fully harnesses human talent, genuinely mobilises consumer power, and finally tames regulators to serve rather than enslave society, while calling on new technologies to enhance each.
This, he sees, is the ideology free way to move on from struggles between socialism and capitalism towards both the basic fairness which people want from the economic system and the efficiency which capitalism ought to be delivering but isn't.
Mark Dixon's thinking takes us an important step towards 'an economy which works for everyone', but which at present is notably failing to do so. This holistic age needs non-economists to begin reforming our economics."
The Right Honourable Lord Howell of Guildford PC was at the centre of government when free market policy, including privatisation, was pursued by Margaret Thatcher. He has held nine ministerial positions in three Conservative governments between 1970 and 2012, and his political career spans being a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 1997 to being a member of the House of Lords since. His books cover or connect economics, technology and democracy.
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