Essay - Free Market Principles Worldwide Free Market Policies Have Been Debated...

Free Market Principles

Worldwide free market policies have been debated extensively for their help or hindrance in alleviating poverty, particularly in third-world countries. While some hold that the free ***** exists to provide all countries with the opportunity ***** compete worldwide and thus improve their economy, others hold that the policies related to this practice are fundamentally harmful for ***** economic development of specific countries. In principle, the free market philosophy promotes worldwide democracy and an equal ***** for all countries to participate in the world *****. ***** reality, however, it appears that the promotion of the free ***** is merely another *****ol for the richest to promote their own well-being to the detriment of the poorest. Malawi, as recently reported in the New York Times, seems ***** be a case in point in substantiat*****g ***** argument. ***** both political and economics *****sues are at stake, the most important in the Malawi case is the focus on ethics. Ethical issues relate not only to the world market and the responsibilities of the rich ********** the poor, but also to ********** countries and how they are governed.

In the Malawi case, the New York ***** report notes that the country has suffered from extreme poverty and hunger ***** ***** of ***** twenty years during which it was obliged to either eliminate or diminish its fertilizer subsidies (Celia W. Dugger). The lack of local government subsidies pushed up fertilizer prices to the point where farmers could not afford it, and hence farmers were unable to fertilize *****ir l*****. Yet, their persona***** and family needs obliged the same farmers to continue using ***** l*****. Unable to let ***** land replenish itself, and ***** to *****, the crops became smaller and *****, and the country reached the edge of starvation. Indeed, Dugger notes that the problem ***** so extreme for *****me that they were obliged to watch loved ones die of *****.

An interesting fact is ***** those denying ***** countries the right ***** provide ***** to *****ir ***** are themselves engaged in extensive subsidy programs *****in their own environments. The result is that local food prices ***** lower than any global competitor ***** hope to meet and still make a profit. Hence the richer countries benefit ***** ***** own subsidy programs, even while keeping poorer countries enmeshed in an ever escalating cycle of increasing poverty ***** hunger.

Ethically, there is clearly a ***** with this state ***** affairs. There is a fund*****mental imbalance in the resources available ***** the rich and ***** that ***** poor are often deliberately deprived of, as seen above. Ethically, rich countries ***** a responsibility not only to alleviate ***** by providing resources ***** opportunities, but also to not provide their ***** already well-off farmers with further subsidies to the exclusion of such rights for other countries. If the aim is truly to provide ***** ***** with equal opportunities within ***** world market, ***** countries should implement the same policies for both their own farmers and those worldwide.

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