oVo wrote:Whoa... nice post BBS, muchas gracias for your input.
"Competition by prices and voluntary exchange tend to weed out the lesser efficient buyers and sellers---just as the organisms who obtain food less efficiently can be weeded out by more efficient organisms."
Market Value... coupled with production and demand can be a real dream reaming morals bender. Venders seek a competitive edge, not a level playing field. The greed factor emerges as the ugly side of human nature prevails over better judgement, anything to get ahead. Like athletes using performance enhancing drugs, ball players corking bats and Corporate America buying the influence of government on all levels.
Short term gains regardless of long term effects... World finance, chemical, energy & manufacturing industries cashing in while ignoring the toxic effects of their processes. Allowing the "Artificial Markets" to determine what's best for everyone in a dog eat dog, who pays the most, survival of the fittest sort of way.
Is this a form of evolution?
Pretty much, but here's how'd I go about doing that:
I'd focus more on the interplay between markets and politics, and note that the behavior of humans within markets is largely determined by the institutions which affect markets. For example, if lobbying becomes more profitable as the government becomes more centralized, then it becomes more rewarding to lobby, thus many businesses adapt to this new environment by investing more into lobbying and into political contributions (adaptation). In turn, they can get compensated for creating more pollution. Some regulations curb it while the many subsidies, tax credits, and favorable legislative bits offset the regulatory cost. The "World finance, chemical, energy & manufacturing industries" all fit into this model.
This political system rewards corruption (and pollution) while punishing to some degree businesses which do not lobby or fund politicians (selection). In turn, you'd get more businesses modeling themselves toward corruption instead of more productive and useful activities--thanks to government institutions which reward detrimental behavior.
Another thing about your analysis is that you need to clarify terms. Market value itself is neither bad nor good. It's just some aggregate value which the sum of individuals have placed on some good in a particular market, and it's expressed as a price which people can accept or reject---or they can request a different quantity at the same price.
It's not so much about short-term v. long-term profits. It's really about whether or not businesses--and individuals like you and me--incorporate costs into our decision-making. If I throw some trash on the street, it hardly affects me because I pay practically zero for the garbage people to clean it--if they even do. If I had to pay for it, then my cost becomes internalized, thus I have to decide between throwing it away and bearing that additional cost, or choosing some other goal instead.
The same applies to businesses. If they can dump crap into the river, and the government or no one does anything about it, then you'll get more crap in the river. Profits--for that business--remain at (let's say) $1 million per year while profits for farmers using the river would decrease due to the consequences of contamination. However, if the government or others through contract/whatever make the business compensate the victims by having them pay x-amount per unit it dumps into the river, then the company has to internalize this extra cost into its decision-making. Let's say that if it dumps into the river, its profits would decrease to $800,000 (since it would pay $200,000 to all affected, or to the government which takes its cut and might compensate others).
If 'recycling' the crap or reusing it would net $100,000, then it makes sense to reuse the by-products instead of dumping it into the river (net profit = $900,000).
So, it's not about short-term v. long-term profits, but about internalizing the costs of individuals' decisions, and how that internalization can induce innovation (e.g. alternative uses of 'garbage').
