Small Government Book Fan Club discussion

"How Dark the World Becomes" is a very exciting kind of sci-fi crime noir story.

About halfway through the book the author takes a page from the likes of Orwell, Heinlein, and Rand and just beans the reader over the head with his message. The message is part of the overarching plot so it doesn't come out of nowhere and doesn't jar one out of the story, IMHO.

From chapter sixteen:

"That's what markets do; they level," she answered, nodding again. "Here's the problem: how did one man get all that money to start with? Not from the market. Significant disparities in wealth are never the result of pure market forces-they are the result of market distortions, and you can't rely on market forces to level a non-market imbalance. If the market by itself could correct the imbalance it would not have developed in the first place, would it?"

...

"...imbalances do not just happen; they are the result of structural contraints, either natural or artificial, which are beyond the ability of markets to change.

"Case in point: innovation. Every advanced society we know of has made the determination, for right or wrong, that the market itself does not sufficiently reward dramatic and costly innovations. Someone comes up with an innovation, they enjoy a transitory advantage, but the pressures of the market drive everyone else to adopt the same innovation as quickly as possible and re-level the field. If the innovation was particularly difficult or costly to develop-say a new drug-the original innovator's momentary advantage is not enough, it is argued, to justify the investment. So the market encourages many simple and inexpensive innovations, but discourages major leaps forward.

"Since societies prize major leaps forward, every advanced society we know of has adopted a series of intellectual property covenants which protect major innovations from the leveling effects of the marketplace. They prohibit anyone but the original innovator from using the innovation; they prohibit competition in that field as a reward for progress. The imbalance those laws create cannot be overcome by the market, because the market is specifically enjoined from doing so."