What the market wants

We often look at market-driven outcomes and claim that is what the market wants and we are all good. That can be case with obscene inequalities, or when some stupid useless cute looking product goes viral. Or even when we emit carbon dioxide through our industrial process and transformation of energy forms in our economy.

When we allow the market mechanism to reign, we ought to be clear what we are trying to achieve in the first place. We know the market achieves efficient allocation, but based on what? Should our lives be just about taking action to satisfy the demand and utility of mankind?

Perhaps we have forgotten there is a greater system out there that our economy interacts with, the lives of people, the beliefs we hold, the discoveries we are trying to make, the environments that we live in. Does it really make sense to be just feeding the market whatever we think it wants? There are already things we determined markets are off-limits; and we have alternative models for them – can’t we be more open about exploring non-market models?