Best Way to Control Unpredictability?

I think one of the most interesting principles in the reading is that, “Every day the community faces the possibility of breakdown—not from the forces of nature, but from sheer human unpredictability” (19). Due to the unpredictability of humans, humans who have the most to lose have tried to create systems that control people enough to make society predictable. If leaders push for everyone to follow the traditions and religions of their ancestors the people in power can peacefully keep the majority on a road of predictability. The book mentions that in the past societies would either push tradition and religion to control the masses or they would use force and power to make the people obey the demands of the leaders. While the book keeps those two methods as different, I believe they should be lumped into the same category. Both of those systems keep everyone under control by making everyone live in fear, whether it is physical pain or a miserable afterlife, the people are driven to doing what the authority wants, because they are afraid of the alternative. Where Heilbroner’s argument becomes really intriguing is when he begins to delve into, “the invention of a third solution to the problem of survival”(20). As he explains the market system and how everyone would look out for their own best interest and everyone would benefit, as every exchange would help all parties. While this seems to work out, I believe that the first two fear based systems are much more efficient at keeping society stable than a free market society. One question that comes to mind is: what is the difference between the forces of nature and the sheer human unpredictability and a free market society? While one is chaos, is the other simply organized chaos?

While I am personally a fan of the capitalist system in the United States, true Laissez Faire is just as scary to me as communism. If the United States let any given business do whatever it was that they saw fit, I believe Sam Walton (Former owner of Walmart) or his successors would be running the country. If there were no anti-trust laws and laws protecting consumers and businesses from the big and powerful companies, then all the small innovative businesses would slowly be gobbled up by all of their competitors until there was a monopoly in every industry. That is why I believe that the United State’s current economic system is as close to perfect as it could ever be. In fact I believe that Robert Owen would be satisfied with the United State’s current economic system. While some people are living in poverty, no one really starves and there is a lot of economic opportunity for both the rich and the poor. While the rich have an advantage over the poor in society, I believe the United States has done the best a country could realistically do in creating a fair system. While there will be people and businesses who take advantage of the government support, or find loop holes like Walmart, by having most of their workers work under forty hours so they don’t have to pay their workers healthcare, the United States is always taking strides towards evening the playing field. Of course according to Helibroner, “The human animal, it is repeatedly said, is distinguished above all by his self consciousness. This seems to mean that, having set up his society, he is not content to let things be; he must tell himself that the particular society in which he lives is the best of all possible societies”(38). With that being said, perhaps I would think that whatever economic system I grew up with would be the best. However, in the case of the United States economic system I think anyone would have a hard time finding major flaws as there are countless checks and balances to almost any possible action of human unpredictability.