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Appendix (anatomy)
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For other uses, see Appendix (disambiguation).
Appendix
Drawing of colon with variability of appendix as seen from front
Arteries of cecum and appendix (appendix labeled as vermiform process at lower right)
Details
Precursor
Midgut
System
Digestive system
Artery
Appendicular artery
Vein
Appendicular vein
Identifiers
Latin
Appendix vermiformis
MeSH
D001065
TA
A05.7.02.007
FMA
14542
Anatomical terminology
[edit on Wikidata]
Ileocecal junction (Appendix appear in blue color)
The appendix (or vermiform appendix; also cecal [or caecal] appendix; vermix; or vermiform process) is a blind-ended tube connected to the cecum, from which it develops in the embryo. The cecum is a pouchlike structure of the colon, located at the junction of the small and the large intestines.
The term "vermiform" comes from Latin and means "worm-shaped."
The appendix has been called a vestigial organ.
Contents
1 Structure
1.1 Variation
2 Functions
2.1 Maintaining gut flora
2.2 Immune and lymphatic system
2.3 Vestigiality
3 Clinical significance
3.1 Appendicitis
3.2 Surgery
4 History
5 Additional images
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
Structure[edit]
Abdominal ultrasound showing a normal appendix between the external iliac artery and the abdominal wall.
The human appendix averages 9 cm in length but can range from 2 to 20 cm. The diameter of the appendix is usually between 7 and 8 mm. The longest appendix ever removed was 26 cm long.[1] The appendix is usually located in the lower right quadrant of the abdomen, near the right hip bone. The base of the appendix is located 2 cm beneath the ileocecal valve that separates the large intestine from the small intestine. Its position within the abdomen corresponds to a point on the surface known as McBurney's point.
The appendix is connected to the mesentery in the lower region of the ileum, by a short region of the mesocolon known as the mesoappendix.[2]
Variation[edit]
Some identical twins—known as mirror image twins—can have a mirror-imaged anatomy, a congenital condition with the appendix located in the lower left quadrant of the abdomen.[3][4] Intestinal malrotation may also cause displacement of the appendix to the left side.
While the base of the appendix is typically located 2 cm below the ileocecal valve, the tip of the appendix can be variably located—in the pelvis, outside the peritoneum or behind the cecum.[5] The prevalence of the different positions varies amongst populations with the retrocecal position being most common in Ghana and Sudan, with 67.3% and 58.3% occurrence respectively, in comparison to Iran and Bosnia where the pelvic position is most common, with 55.8% and 57.7% occurrence respectively.[6][7][8][9]
In very rare cases, the appendix may not be present at all (laparotomies for suspected appendicitis have given a frequency of 1 in 100,000).[10]
Sometimes there is a semi-circular fold of mucous membrane at the opening of the appendix. This valve of the vermiform appendix is also called Gerlach's valve.[2]
Functions[edit]
Maintaining gut flora[edit]
A possible function of the human appendix is a "safe house" for beneficial bacteria in the recovery from diarrhea.
Although it has been long accepted that the immune tissue surrounding the appendix and elsewhere in the gut—called gut-associated lymphoid tissue—carries out a number of important functions, explanations were lacking for the distinctive shape of the appendix and its apparent lack of specific importance and function as judged by an absence of side effects following its removal.[11] Therefore, the notion that the appendix is only vestigial became widely held.
William Parker, Randy Bollinger, and colleagues at Duke University proposed in 2007 that the appendix serves as a haven for useful bacteria when illness flushes the bacteria from the rest of the intestines.[12][13] This proposition is based on an understanding that emerged by the early 2000s of how the immune system supports the growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria,[14][15] in combination with many well-known features of the appendix, including its architecture, its location just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine, and its association with copious amounts of immune tissue. Research performed at Winthrop–University Hospital showed that individuals without an appendix were four times more likely to have a recurrence of Clostridium difficile colitis.[16] The appendix, therefore, may act as a "safe house" for beneficial bacteria.[12] This reservoir of bacteria could then serve to repopulate the gut flora in the digestive system following a bout of dysentery or cholera or to boost it following a milder gastrointestinal illness.[13]
Immune and lymphatic system[edit]
The appendix has been identified as an important component of mammalian mucosal immune function, particularly B cell-mediated immune responses and extrathymically derived T cells. This structure helps in the proper movement and removal of waste matter in the digestive system, contains lymphatic vessels that regulate pathogens, and lastly, might even produce early defences that prevent deadly diseases. Additionally, it is thought that this may provide more immune defences from invading pathogens and getting the lymphatic system's B and T cells to fight the viruses and bacteria that infect that portion of the bowel and training them so that immune responses are targeted and more able to reliably and less dangerously fight off pathogens.[17] In addition, there are different immune cells called innate lymphoid cells that function in the gut in order to help the appendix maintain digestive health.[18][19]
Vestigiality[edit]
The human appendix had been proposed to be a vestigial structure, a structure that has lost all or most of its original function or that has evolved to take on a new function. The suggestion was that it is the shrunken remnant of the cecum thought to have been present in a remote ancestor of humans. This notion is still widely held. A 2013 study, however, refutes the idea of an inverse relationship between cecum size and appendix size and presence.[20] Ceca, which occur in the digestive tracts of many herbivores (e.g., ox, horse), house mutualistic bacteria and ingested small stones that help animals digest the cellulose molecules found in plants.[21]
It is widely present in euarchontoglires (a superorder of mammals that includes rodents and primates), has also evolved independently in the diprotodont marsupials and monotremes and is highly diverse in size and shape.[20][22]
A possible scenario for the progression from a fully functional cecum to the current human appendix was put forth by Charles Darwin. He suggested that the appendix was used for digesting leaves as primates. It may be a vestigial organ of ancient humans that has degraded to nearly nothing of its original purpose or evolved to take on a new purpose over the course of evolution. The very long cecum of some herbivorous animals, such as in the horse or the koala, appears to support this theory. The koala's cecum enables it to host bacteria that specifically help to break down cellulose. Human ancestors may have also relied upon this system when they lived on a diet rich in foliage. As people began to eat more easily digested foods, they may have become less reliant on cellulose-rich plants for energy. As the cecum became less necessary for digestion, mutations that were previously deleterious (and would have hindered evolutionary progress) were no longer important, so the mutations survived. It is suggested that these alleles became more frequent and the cecum continued to shrink. After millions of years, the once-necessary cecum degraded to be the appendix of modern humans.[23]
Clinical significance[edit]
An appendiceal carcinoid tumor
The most common diseases of the appendix (in humans) are appendicitis and carcinoid tumors (appendiceal carcinoid).[24] Appendix cancer accounts for about 1 in 200 of all gastrointestinal malignancies. In rare cases, adenomas are also present.[25]
Appendicitis[edit]
Main article: Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. Pain often begins in the center of the abdomen, corresponding to the appendix's development as part of the embryonic midgut. This pain is typically a dull, poorly localized, visceral pain.[26]
As the inflammation progresses, the pain begins to localize more clearly to the right lower quadrant, as the peritoneum becomes inflamed. This peritoneal inflammation, or peritonitis, results in rebound tenderness (pain upon removal of pressure rather than application of pressure). In particular, it presents at McBurney's point, 1/3 of the way along a line drawn from the anterior superior iliac spine to the umbilicus. Typically, point (skin) pain is not present until the parietal peritoneum is inflamed, as well. Fever and an immune system response are also characteristic of appendicitis.[26]
Appendicitis usually requires the removal of the inflamed appendix, in an appendectomy either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, the appendix may rupture, leading to peritonitis, followed by shock, and, if still untreated, death.[26]
Surgery[edit]
Main article: Appendectomy
The surgical removal of the appendix is called an appendectomy. This removal is normally performed as an emergency procedure when the patient is suffering from acute appendicitis. In the absence of surgical facilities, intravenous antibiotics are used to delay or avoid the onset of sepsis. In some cases, the appendicitis resolves completely; more often, an inflammatory mass forms around the appendix. This is a relative contraindication to surgery.
The appendix is also used for the construction of an efferent urinary conduit, in an operation known as the Mitrofanoff procedure,[27] in people with a neurogenic bladder.
The appendix is also used as a means to access the colon in children with paralysed bowels or major rectal sphincter problems. The appendix is brought out to the skin surface and the child/parent can then attach a catheter and easily wash out the colon (via normal defaecation) using an appropriate solution.[28]
History[edit]
Dr. Heather F. Smith of Midwestern University and colleagues explained:
Recently ... improved understanding of gut immunity has merged with current thinking in biological and medical science, pointing to an apparent function of the mammalian cecal appendix as a safe-house for symbiotic gut microbes, preserving the flora during times of gastrointestinal infection in societies without modern medicine. This function is potentially a selective force for the evolution and maintenance of the appendix. Three morphotypes of cecal-appendices can be described among mammals based primarily on the shape of the cecum: a distinct appendix branching from a rounded or sac-like cecum (as in many primate species), an appendix located at the apex of a long and voluminous cecum (as in the rabbit, greater glider and Cape dune mole rat), and an appendix in the absence of a pronounced cecum (as in the wombat). In addition, long narrow appendix-like structures are found in mammals that either lack an apparent cecum (as in monotremes) or lack a distinct junction between the cecum and appendix-like structure (as in the koala). A cecal appendix has evolved independently at least twice, and apparently represents yet another example of convergence in morphology between Australian marsupials and placentals in the rest of the world. Although the appendix has apparently been lost by numerous species, it has also been maintained for more than 80 million years in at least one clade.[22]
In a more recent paper, the appendix was found to have evolved at least 32 times (and perhaps as many as 38 times) and to have been lost no more than six times.[20] This suggests that the cecal appendix has a selective advantage in many situations and argues strongly against its vestigial nature. This complex evolutionary history of the appendix, along with a great heterogeneity in its evolutionary rate in various taxa, suggests that it is a recurrent trait.[29]
Such a function may be useful in a culture lacking modern sanitation and healthcare practice, where diarrhea may be prevalent. Current epidemiological data on the cause of death in developed countries collected by the World Health Organization in 2001 show that acute diarrhea is now the fourth leading cause of disease-related death in developing countries (data summarized by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Two of the other leading causes of death are expected to have exerted limited or no selection pressure.[30][31]
Additional images[edit]
Illustration depicting the location of the appendix in a child
Normal location of the appendix relative to other organs of the digestive system (frontal view)
Vermiform appendix
Ileo-cecal valve and vermiform appendix
Mucinous adenocarcinoma of the appendix tip
Cross section of the appendix with Enterobius with H&E stain
Histology of vermiform appendix
See also[edit]
Meckel's diverticulum
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "Largest appendix removed". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b Golalipour, M.J.; Arya, B.; Jahanshahi, M.; Azarhoosh, R. (2003). "Anatomical Variations Of Vermiform Appendix In South-East Caspian Sea (Gorgan-IRAN)" (PDF). J. Anat. Soc. India. Retrieved 1 October 2014. [permanent dead link]
Jump up ^ "Unusual Types of Twins". Multiples of America. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
Jump up ^ Gedda L, Sciacca A, Brenci G, et al. (1984). "Situs viscerum specularis in monozygotic twins". Acta Genet Med Gemellol (Roma). 33 (1): 81–5. PMID 6540028.
Jump up ^ Paterson-Brown, S. (2007). "15. The acute abdomen and intestinal obstruction". In Parks, Rowan W.; Garden, O. James; Carter, David John; Bradbury, Andrew W.; Forsythe, John L. R. Principles and practice of surgery (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. ISBN 0-443-10157-4.
Jump up ^ Clegg-Lamptey JN, Armah H, Naaeder SB, Adu-Aryee NA (2006). "Position and susceptibility to inflammation of vermiform appendix in Accra, Ghana". East Afr Med J. 83 (12): 670–3. PMID 17685212.
Jump up ^ Bakheit MA, Warille AA (1999). "Anomalies of the vermiform appendix and prevalence of acute appendicitis in Khartoum". East Afr Med J. 76 (6): 338–40. PMID 10750522.
Jump up ^ Ghorbani A, Forouzesh M, Kazemifar AM (2014). "Variation in Anatomical Position of Vermiform Appendix among Iranian Population: An Old Issue Which Has Not Lost Its Importance". Anat Res Int. 2014: 313575. doi:10.1155/2014/313575. PMC 4176911  . PMID 25295193.
Jump up ^ Denjalić A, Delić J, Delić-Custendil S, Muminagić S (2009). "[Variations in position and place of formation of appendix vermiformis found in the course of open appendectomy]". Med Arh (in Bosnian). 63 (2): 100–1. PMID 19537667.
Jump up ^ Zetina-Mejía CA, Alvarez-Cosío JE, Quillo-Olvera J (2009). "Congenital absence of the cecal appendix. Case report". Cir Cir. 77 (5): 407–10. PMID 19944032.
Jump up ^ Kumar, Vinay; Robbins, Stanley L.; Cotran, Ramzi S. (1989). Robbins' pathologic basis of disease (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders. pp. 902–3. ISBN 0-7216-2302-6.
^ Jump up to: a b Associated Press. "Scientists may have found appendix's purpose". MSNBC, 5 October 2007. Accessed 17 March 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b Bollinger, R.R.; Barbas, A.S.; Bush, E.L.; Lin, S.S.; Parker, W. (21 December 2007). "Biofilms in the large bowel suggest an apparent function of the human vermiform appendix". Journal of Theoretical Biology. 249 (4): 826–831. doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.08.032. ISSN 0022-5193. PMID 17936308.
Jump up ^ Sonnenburg J.L.; Angenent L.T.; Gordon J.I. (June 2004). "Getting a grip on things: how do communities of bacterial symbionts become established in our intestine?". Nat. Immunol. 5 (6): 569–73. doi:10.1038/ni1079. PMID 15164016.
Jump up ^ Everett M.L.; Palestrant D.; Miller S.E.; Bollinger R.R.; Parker W. (2004). "Immune exclusion and immune inclusion: a new model of host-bacterial interactions in the gut". Clinical and Applied Immunology Reviews. 5 (5): 321–32. doi:10.1016/j.cair.2004.03.001.
Jump up ^ Dunn, Rob. "Your Appendix Could Save Your Life". Retrieved 22 December 2016.
Jump up ^ Zahid, Aliya (2004-04-01). "The vermiform appendix: not a useless organ". Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons--Pakistan: JCPSP. 14 (4): 256–258. ISSN 1022-386X. PMID 15228837.
Jump up ^ Rankin, Lucille C.; Girard-Madoux, Mathilde J. H.; Seillet, Cyril; Mielke, Lisa A.; Kerdiles, Yann; Fenis, Aurore; Wieduwild, Elisabeth; Putoczki, Tracy; Mondot, Stanislas (2016-02-01). "Complementarity and redundancy of IL-22-producing innate lymphoid cells". Nature Immunology. 17 (2): 179–186. doi:10.1038/ni.3332. ISSN 1529-2908. PMC 4720992  . PMID 26595889.
Jump up ^ Research, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical (2016-08-19). "Lucille Rankin". Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
^ Jump up to: a b c Smith H. F.; Parker W.; Kotzé, S. H.; Laurin, M. (2013). "Multiple independent appearances of the cecal appendix in mammalian evolution and an investigation of related ecological and anatomical factors". Comptes Rendus Palevol. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2012.12.001.
Jump up ^ "Animal Structure & Function". Sci.waikato.ac.nz. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
^ Jump up to: a b Smith H. F.; Fisher R. E.; Everett M. L.; Thomas A. D.; Bollinger, R. R.; Parker W. (2009). "Comparative anatomy and phylogenetic distribution of the mammalian cecal appendix". Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 22 (10): 1984–1999. doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2009.01809.x. PMID 19678866.
Jump up ^ Darwin, Charles (1871) "Jim's Jesus". The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. John Murray: London.
Jump up ^ "Appendix disorders Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatments and Causes". Wrongdiagnosis.com. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
Jump up ^ "Statistics about Appendix disorder". Wrongdiagnosis.com. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
^ Jump up to: a b c Miller R., Kenneth; Levine, Joseph (2002). Biology. Prentice Hall. pp. 92–98. ISBN 0-13-050730-X.
Jump up ^ Mingin G.C.; Baskin L.S. (2003). "Surgical management of the neurogenic bladder and bowel". Int Braz J Urol. 29 (1): 53–61. doi:10.1590/S1677-55382003000100012. PMID 15745470.
Jump up ^ "Wellington Children's Hospital : Caring for an ACE or Chait Tube : Healthpoint". Retrieved 22 December 2016.
Jump up ^ Laurin M.; Everett, M.L.; Parker W. (2011). "The cecal appendix: one more immune component with a function disturbed by post-industrial culture". Anatomical Record. 294 (4): 567–579. doi:10.1002/ar.21357.
Jump up ^ Needs Citation
Jump up ^ Evolution of the Appendix: A Biological 'Remenant' No More; By Duke Medicine News and Communications; Published: 20 August 2009 Updated: 21 August 2009, http://www.dukehealth.org/health_library/news/evolution_of_the_appendix_a_biological_remnant_no_more
Further reading[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Appendix (anatomy).
Appendix May Actually Have a Purpose—2007 WebMD article
Anatomy photo:37:12-0102 at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center—"Abdominal Cavity: The Cecum and the Vermiform Appendix"
"The vestigiality of the human vermiform appendix: A Modern Reappraisal"—evolutionary biology argument that the appendix is vestigial
Smith, H.F.; Fisher, R.E.; Everett, M.L.; Thomas, A.D.; Bollinger, R. Randal; Parker, W. (October 2009). "Comparative anatomy and phylogenetic distribution of the mammalian cecal appendix". Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 22 (10): 1984–99. doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2009.01809.x. ISSN 1420-9101. PMID 19678866.
Cho, Jinny. "Scientists refute Darwin's theory on appendix". The Chronicle (Duke University), August 27, 2009. (News article on the above journal article.)
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Free market
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For economic systems coordinated by either free markets or regulated markets, see Market economy.
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
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In economics, a free market is an idealized system in which the prices for goods and services are determined by the open market and consumers, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority.
Proponents of the concept of free market contrast it with a regulated market, in which a government intervenes in supply and demand through various methods such as tariffs used to restrict trade and protect the economy. In an idealized free market economy, prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy.
In scholarly debates, the concept of a free market is contrasted with the concept of a coordinated market in fields of study such as political economy, new institutional economics, economic sociology, and political science. All of these fields emphasize the importance in actually existing market systems of rule making institutions external to the simple forces of supply and demand which create space for those forces to operate to control productive output and distribution.
One famous statement of the scholarly approach to the concept of free markets within political science is Freer Markets, More Rules[1] by Steven K. Vogel. As the title suggests, the scholarly study of free markets is more accurately understood as the act of increasing or decreasing how strict rules are (more free or less free; liberalizing or deliberalizing) rather than the idealized concept of free markets as a state of the world. Free markets as a verb phrase, rather than free markets as a noun phrase.
Although free markets are commonly associated with capitalism within a market economy in contemporary usage and popular culture, free markets have also been advocated by free-market anarchists, market socialists, and some proponents of cooperatives and advocates of profit sharing.[2] Criticism of the theoretical concept consider systems with significant market power, inequality of bargaining power, or information asymmetry to be less than free, with regulation being necessary to control those imbalances in order to allow markets to function more efficiently as well as produce more desirable social outcomes.
Contents
[hide]
1 Economic systems
1.1 Laissez-faire economics
1.2 Socialist economics
1.3 Geoist economics
1.4 Non-laissez-faire capitalist systems
2 Concepts
2.1 Supply and demand
2.2 Economic equilibrium
2.3 Low barriers to entry
2.4 Spontaneous order
2.5 General principles
3 Criticisms
4 See also
5 Notes
6 Further reading
7 External links
Economic systems[edit]
Laissez-faire economics[edit]
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Main article: Laissez-faire
The laissez-faire principle expresses a preference for an absence of non-market pressures on prices and wages, such as those from discriminatory government taxes, subsidies, tariffs, regulations of purely private behavior, or government-granted or coercive monopolies. Friedrich Hayek argued in The Pure Theory of Capital that the goal is the preservation of the unique information contained in the price itself.[3]
The definition of free market has been disputed and made complex by collectivist political philosophers and socialist economic ideas.[4] This contention arose from the divergence from classical economists such as Richard Cantillon, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Thomas Robert Malthus, and from the continental economic science developed primarily by the Spanish scholastic and French classical economists, including Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, Jean-Baptiste Say and Frédéric Bastiat.
During the marginal revolution, subjective value theory was rediscovered.[5]
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Various forms of socialism based on free markets have existed since the 19th century. Early notable socialist proponents of free markets include Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Benjamin Tucker, and the Ricardian socialists. These economists believed that genuinely free markets and voluntary exchange could not exist within the exploitative conditions of capitalism.
These proposals ranged from various forms of worker cooperatives operating in a free market economy, such as the Mutualist system proposed by Proudhon, to state-owned enterprises operating in unregulated and open markets. These models of socialism are not to be confused with other forms of market socialism (e.g. the Lange model) where publicly owned enterprises are coordinated by various degrees of economic planning, or where capital good prices are determined through marginal cost pricing.
Advocates of free-market socialism such as Jaroslav Vanek argue that genuinely free markets are not possible under conditions of private ownership of productive property. Instead, he contends that the class differences and inequalities in income and power that result from private ownership enable the interests of the dominant class to skew the market to their favor, either in the form of monopoly and market power, or by utilizing their wealth and resources to legislate government policies that benefit their specific business interests.[6] Additionally, Vanek states that workers in a socialist economy based on cooperative and self-managed enterprises have stronger incentives to maximize productivity because they would receive a share of the profits (based on the overall performance of their enterprise) in addition to receiving their fixed wage or salary.
Socialists also assert that free market capitalism leads to an excessively skewed distribution of income, which in turn leads to social instability. As a result, corrective measures in the form of social welfare[7], re-distributive taxation, and administrative costs are required, which end up being paid into workers hands who spend and help the economy to run. Corporate monopolies run rampant in free markets, with endless agency over the consumer. Thus, free market socialism desires government regulation of markets to prevent social instability, although at the cost of taxpayer dollars.[8]
Geoist economics[edit]
As explained above, for classical economists such as Adam Smith the term "free market" does not necessarily refer to a market free from government interference, but rather free from all forms of economic privilege, monopolies, and artificial scarcities.[4] This implies that economic rents, i.e. profits generated from a lack of perfect competition, must be reduced or eliminated as much as possible through free competition.
Economic theory suggests the returns to land and other natural resources are economic rents that cannot be reduced in such a way because of their perfect inelastic supply.[9] Some economic thinkers emphasize the need to share those rents as an essential requirement for a well functioning market. It is suggested this would both eliminate the need for regular taxes that have a negative effect on trade (see deadweight loss) as well as release land and resources that are speculated upon or monopolised. Two features that improve the competition and free market mechanisms. Winston Churchill supported this view by his statement "Land is the mother of all monopoly".[10]
The American economist and social philosopher Henry George, the most famous proponent of this thesis, wanted to accomplish this through a high land value tax that replaces all other taxes.[11] Followers of his ideas are often called Georgists or Geoists and Geolibertarians.
Léon Walras, one of the founders of the neoclassical economics who helped formulate the general equilibrium theory, had a very similar view. He argued that free competition could only be realized under conditions of state ownership of natural resources and land. Additionally, income taxes could be eliminated because the state would receive income to finance public services through owning such resources and enterprises.[12]
Non-laissez-faire capitalist systems[edit]
The stronger incentives to maximize productivity that Vanek conceives as possible in a socialist economy based on cooperative and self-managed enterprises might be accomplished in a capitalistic free market if employee-owned companies were the norm, as envisioned by various thinkers including Louis O. Kelso and James S. Albus.
Concepts[edit]
Supply and demand[edit]
Main article: Supply and demand
Demand for an item (such as goods or services) refers to the market pressure from people trying to buy it. Buyers have a maximum price they are willing to pay and sellers have a minimum price they are willing to offer their product. The point at which the supply and demand curves meet is the equilibrium price of the good and quantity demanded. Sellers willing to offer their goods at a lower price than the equilibrium price receive the difference as producer surplus. Buyers willing to pay for goods at a higher price than the equilibrium price receive the difference as consumer surplus.[13]
The model is commonly applied to wages in the market for labor. The typical roles of supplier and consumer are reversed. The suppliers are individuals, who try to sell (supply) their labor for the highest price. The consumers are businesses, which try to buy (demand) the type of labor they need at the lowest price. As more people offer their labor in that market, the equilibrium wage decreases and the equilibrium level of employment increases as the supply curve shifts to the right. The opposite happens if fewer people offer their wages in the market as the supply curve shifts to the left.[13]
In a free market, individuals and firms taking part in these transactions have the liberty to enter, leave and participate in the market as they so choose. Prices and quantities are allowed to adjust according to economic conditions in order to reach equilibrium and properly allocate resources. However, in many countries around the world, governments seek to intervene in the free market in order to achieve certain social or political agendas.[14] Governments may attempt to create social equality or equality of outcome by intervening in the market through actions such as imposing a minimum wage (price floor) or erecting price controls (price ceiling). Other lesser-known goals are also pursued, such as in the United States, where the federal government subsidizes owners of fertile land to not grow crops in order to prevent the supply curve from further shifting to the right and decreasing the equilibrium price. This is done under the justification of maintaining farmers' profits; due to the relative inelasticity of demand for crops, increased supply would lower the price but not significantly increase quantity demanded, thus placing pressure on farmers to exit the market.[15] Such interventions are often done in the name of maintaining basic assumptions of free markets, such as the idea that the costs of production must be included in the price of goods. Pollution and depletion costs are sometimes NOT included in the cost of production (a manufacturer that withdraws water at one location then discharges it polluted downstream, avoiding the cost of treating the water), so governments may opt to impose regulations in an attempt to try to internalize all of the cost of production (and ultimately include them in the price of the goods).
Advocates of the free market contend that government intervention hampers economic growth by disrupting the natural allocation of resources according to supply and demand, while critics of the free market contend that government intervention is sometimes necessary to protect a country's economy from better-developed and more influential economies, while providing the stability necessary for wise long-term investment. Milton Friedman pointed to failures of central planning, price controls and state-owned corporations, particularly in the Soviet Union and Communist China,[16] while Ha-Joon Chang cites the examples of post-war Japan and the growth of South Korea's steel industry.[17]
Economic equilibrium[edit]
Main article: Economic equilibrium
General equilibrium theory has demonstrated, with varying degrees of mathematical rigor over time, that under certain conditions of competition, the law of supply and demand predominates in this ideal free and competitive market, influencing prices toward an equilibrium that balances the demands for the products against the supplies.[18] At these equilibrium prices, the market distributes the products to the purchasers according to each purchaser's preference (or utility) for each product and within the relative limits of each buyer's purchasing power. This result is described as market efficiency, or more specifically a Pareto optimum.
This equilibrating behavior of free markets requires certain assumptions about their agents, collectively known as perfect competition, which therefore cannot be results of the market that they create. Among these assumptions are several which are impossible to fully achieve in a real market, such as complete information, interchangeable goods and services, and lack of market power. The question then is what approximations of these conditions guarantee approximations of market efficiency, and which failures in competition generate overall market failures. Several Nobel Prizes in Economics have been awarded for analyses of market failures due to asymmetric information.
Low barriers to entry[edit]
Main article: Barriers to entry
A free market does not require the existence of competition, however it does require a framework that allows new market entrants. Hence, in the lack of coercive barriers, and in markets with low entry cost it is generally understood that competition flourishes in a free-market environment. It often suggests the presence of the profit motive, although neither a profit motive or profit itself are necessary for a free market.[citation needed] All modern free markets are understood to include entrepreneurs, both individuals and businesses. Typically, a modern free market economy would include other features, such as a stock exchange and a financial services sector, but they do not define it.
Spontaneous order[edit]
Main articles: Invisible hand and Spontaneous order
Friedrich Hayek popularized the view that market economies promote spontaneous order which results in a better "allocation of societal resources than any design could achieve."[19] According to this view, in market economies are characterized by the formation of complex transactional networks which produce and distribute goods and services throughout the economy. These networks are not designed, but nevertheless emerge as a result of decentralized individual economic decisions. The idea of spontaneous order is an elaboration on the invisible hand proposed by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. Smith wrote that the individual who:
By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest [an individual] frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the [common] good.
—  Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
Smith pointed out that one does not get one's dinner by appealing to the brother-love of the butcher, the farmer or the baker. Rather one appeals to their self-interest, and pays them for their labor.
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.
—  Adam Smith[20]
Supporters of this view claim that spontaneous order is superior to any order that does not allow individuals to make their own choices of what to produce, what to buy, what to sell, and at what prices, due to the number and complexity of the factors involved. They further believe that any attempt to implement central planning will result in more disorder, or a less efficient production and distribution of goods and services.
Critics, such as political economist Karl Polanyi, question whether a spontaneously ordered market can exist, completely free of "distortions" of political policy; claiming that even the ostensibly freest markets require a state to exercise coercive power in some areas – to enforce contracts, to govern the formation of labor unions, to spell out the rights and obligations of corporations, to shape who has standing to bring legal actions, to define what constitutes an unacceptable conflict of interest, etc.[21]
General principles[edit]
The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, tried to identify the key factors necessary to measure the degree of freedom of economy of a particular country. In 1986 they introduced the Index of Economic Freedom, which is based on some fifty variables. This and other similar indices do not define a free market, but measure the degree to which a modern economy is free, meaning in most cases, free of state intervention. The variables are divided into the following major groups:
Trade policy,
Fiscal burden of government,
Government intervention in the economy,
Monetary policy,
Capital flows and foreign investment,
Banking and finance,
Wages and prices,
Property rights,
Regulation, and
Informal market activity.
These free market principles are what helped America transition to a free market economy. International free trade improved the country and in order for Americans to prosper from a strong economy they had no choice but to embrace it.[22] Each group is assigned a numerical value between 1 and 5; IEF is the arithmetical mean of the values, rounded to the nearest hundredth. Initially, countries which were traditionally considered capitalistic received high ratings, but the method improved over time. Some economists, like Milton Friedman and other laissez-faire economists have argued that there is a direct relationship between economic growth and economic freedom, and some studies suggest this is true.[23] Ongoing debates exist among scholars regarding methodological issues in empirical studies of the connection between economic freedom and economic growth. These debates and studies continue to explore just what that relationship entails.[24][25][26]
The principles of a free market are defined as:[27]
Individual Rights: "We are each created with equal individual rights to control and to defend our life, liberty and property and to voluntary contractual exchange."
Limited Government: "Governments are instituted only to secure individual rights, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Equal Justice Under Law: "Government must treat everyone equally; neither rewarding failure nor punishing success."
Subsidiarity: "Government authority must reside at the lowest feasible level."
Spontaneous Order: "When individual rights are respected, unregulated competition will maximize economic benefit for society by providing the most goods and services possible at the lowest cost."
Property Rights: "Private ownership is the most efficient way to sustainably utilize resources."
The Golden Rule: "Deal with others honestly and require honesty in return."
Criticisms[edit]
See also: Criticism of capitalism
Critics of the free market have argued that, in real world situations, it has proven to be susceptible to the development of price fixing monopolies.[28] Such reasoning has led to government intervention, e.g. the United States antitrust law.
Two prominent Canadian authors argue that government at times has to intervene to ensure competition in large and important industries. Naomi Klein illustrates this roughly in her work The Shock Doctrine and John Ralston Saul more humorously illustrates this through various examples in The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World.[29] While its supporters argue that only a free market can create healthy competition and therefore more business and reasonable prices, opponents say that a free market in its purest form may result in the opposite. According to Klein and Ralston, the merging of companies into giant corporations or the privatization of government-run industry and national assets often result in monopolies (or oligopolies) requiring government intervention to force competition and reasonable prices.[29] Another form of market failure is speculation, where transactions are made to profit from short term fluctuation, rather from the intrinsic value of the companies or products.
This criticism has been challenged by historians such as Lawrence Reed, who argued that monopolies have historically failed to form even in the absence of anti-trust law.[30] This is because monopolies are inherently difficult to maintain: a company that tries to maintain its monopoly by buying out new competitors, for instance, is incentivizing newcomers to enter the market in hope of a buy-out.
American philosopher and author Cornel West has derisively termed what he perceives as dogmatic arguments for laissez-faire economic policies as "free-market fundamentalism". West has contended that such mentality "trivializes the concern for public interest" and "makes money-driven, poll-obsessed elected officials deferential to corporate goals of profit – often at the cost of the common good."[31] American political philosopher Michael J. Sandel contends that in the last 30 years the United States has moved beyond just having a market economy and has become a market society where literally everything is for sale, including aspects of social and civic life such as education, access to justice and political influence.[32] The economic historian Karl Polanyi was highly critical of the idea of the market-based society in his book The Great Transformation, noting that any attempt at its creation would undermine human society and the common good.[33]
Critics of free market economics range from those who reject markets entirely in favour of a planned economy as advocated by various Marxists, to those who wish to see market failures regulated to various degrees or supplemented by government interventions. Keynesians support market roles for government, such as using fiscal policy for economic stimulus when actions in the private sector lead to sub-optimal economic outcomes of depressions or recessions. Business cycle theory is used by Keynesians to explain liquidity traps, by which underconsumption occurs, to argue for government intervention with fiscal policy.
Furthermore only one known example of a true free market exists, and that is the Black Market. The Black Market is under constant threat by the Police, but under no circumstances do the police regulate the substances that are being created. The Black Market produces wholly unregulated goods, and are purchased and consumed unregulated. That is to say, anyone can produce anything at any time, and anyone can purchase anything available at any time.
See also[edit]
Binary economics
Black market
Crony capitalism
Economic liberalism
Free trade
Freedom of choice
Grey market
Neoliberalism
Participatory economics
Quasi-market
Self-managed economy
Transparency (market)
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Vogel, Steven Kent (1998-04-09). Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries. Cornell Studies in Political Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801485343.
Jump up ^ Bockman, Johanna (2011). Markets in the name of Socialism: The Left-Wing origins of Neoliberalism. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-7566-3.
Jump up ^ The Pure Theory of Capital, F.A. Hayek, 1941
^ Jump up to: a b Popper, Karl (1994). The Open Society and Its Enemies. Routledge Classics. ISBN 978-0-415-61021-6.
Jump up ^ Popper, Karl (2002). The Poverty of Historicism. Routledge Classics. ISBN 0415278465.
Jump up ^ "Cooperative Economics: An Interview with Jaroslav Vanek", interview by Albert Perkins. Retrieved March 17, 2011: http://www.ru.org/51cooper.html
Jump up ^ "Example Domain". www.example.com. Retrieved 2017-10-14.
Jump up ^ The Political Economy of Socialism, by Horvat, Branko. 1982. (pp. 197–98)
Jump up ^ Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations Book V, Chapter 2, Part 2, Article I: Taxes upon the Rent of Houses
Jump up ^ House Of Commons May 4th; King's Theatre, Edinburgh, July 17
Jump up ^ Backhaus, "Henry George's Ingenious Tax," pp. 453–58.
Jump up ^ Bockman, Johanna (2011). Markets in the name of Socialism: The Left-Wing origins of Neoliberalism. Stanford University Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8047-7566-3. For Walras, socialism would provide the necessary institutions for free competition and social justice. Socialism, in Walras's view, entailed state ownership of land and natural resources and the abolition of income taxes. As owner of land and natural resources, the state could then lease these resources to many individuals and groups, which would eliminate monopolies and thus enable free competition. The leasing of land and natural resources would also provide enough state revenue to make income taxes unnecessary, allowing a worker to invest his savings and become 'an owner or capitalist at the same time that he remains a worker.
^ Jump up to: a b Judd, K. L. (1997). "Computational economics and economic theory: Substitutes or complements?". Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. 21 (6): 907–42. doi:10.1016/S0165-1889(97)00010-9.
Jump up ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-05-22. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
Jump up ^ "Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don't Farm". Washington Post. 2 July 2006. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
Jump up ^ Ip, Greg and Mark Whitehouse, "How Milton Friedman Changed Economics, Policy and Markets", Wall Street Journal Online (November 17, 2006).
Jump up ^ "Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism", Ha-Joon Chang, Bloomsbury Press, ISBN 978-1596915985
Jump up ^ Theory of Value, by Gérard Debreu
Jump up ^ Hayek cited. Petsoulas, Christina. Hayek's Liberalism and Its Origins: His Idea of Spontaneous Order and the Scottish Enlightenment. Routledge. 2001. p. 2
Jump up ^ Smith, Adam (1776). "2". Wealth of Nations. 1. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell.
Jump up ^ Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer – and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Simon & Schuster 2010, p. 55
Jump up ^ Hunt, Michael H (2004). The World Transformed: 1945 To The Present. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's: Oxford University Press. p. 313.
Jump up ^ Ayal, Eliezer B. and Karras, Georgios. "Components of Economic Freedom and Growth." Journal of Developing Areas, Vol. 32, No. 3, Spring 1998, pp. 327–38. Publisher: Western Illinois University.
Jump up ^ COLE, Julio H. and LAWSON, Robert A. Handling Economic Freedom in Growth Regressions: Suggestions for Clarification. Econ Journal Watch, Volume 4, Number 1, January 2007, pp. 71–78.
Jump up ^ DE HAAN, Jacob and STURM, Jan-Egbert. How to Handle Economic Freedom: Reply to Lawson. Econ Journal Watch, Volume 3, Number 3, September 2006, pp. 407–411.
Jump up ^ DE HAAN, Jacob and STURM, Jan-Egbert. Handling Economic Freedom in Growth Regressions: A Reply to Cole and Lawson. Econ Journal Watch, Volume 4, Number 1, January 2007, pp. 79–82.
Jump up ^ Principles of the Free Market Free Market Monument Foundation, 2009
Jump up ^ Tarbell, Ida (1904). The History of the Standard Oil Company. McClure, Phillips and Co.
^ Jump up to: a b Saul, John The End of Globalism.
Jump up ^ "Cliche #41: “Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company Proved That We Needed Anti-Trust Laws to Fight Such Market Monopolies", The Freeman, January 23, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
Jump up ^ "Cornel West: Democracy Matters", The Globalist, January 24, 2005. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
Jump up ^ Michael J. Sandel (June 2013). Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life. TED. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
Jump up ^ Henry Farrell (July 18, 2014). The free market is an impossible utopia. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
Further reading[edit]
Block, Fred and Somers, Margaret R (2014). The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl Polanyi's Critique. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674050711
Boettke, Peter J. "What Went Wrong with Economics?", Critical Review Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 35, 58
Harcourt, Bernard (2012). The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674066162
Cox, Harvey (2016). The Market as God. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674659681
Hayek, Friedrich A. (1948). Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. vii, 271, [1]
Palda, Filip (2011) Pareto's Republic and the New Science of Peace 2011 [1] chapters online. Published by Cooper-Wolfling. ISBN 978-0-9877880-0-9
Sandel, Michael J. (2013). What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0374533652
Stiglitz, Joseph. (1994). Whither Socialism? Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Verhaeghe, Paul (2014). What About Me? The Struggle for Identity in a Market-Based Society. Scribe Publications. ISBN 1922247375
External links[edit]
Free Enterprise: The Economics of Cooperation Looks at how communication, coordination and cooperation interact to make free markets work
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