Summary Of The Meaning Of Competition By Hayek

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Friedrich August Von Hayek was a political economist that possessed a tremendous influence on how people in capitalist societies comprehended the concept of liberty. His viewpoint of freedom did not embody liberal ideals, but “a policy that deliberately adopts competition, markets, and prices as its ordering principles” (The School of Life, 2016). Although he had a substantial career, it was after his retirement, that his influence truly left a mark in the realm of economic theories. In his article, “The Meaning of Competition” Hayek states why the consequential effects of upholding the so-called theory of ‘Perfect Competition’ as the proper model for judging real-life competition are detrimental to our society. The theory that Hayek is blatantly …show more content…
Furthermore, it is during these adaptation period that the market equilibrium shifts from one point to another that the soul of the free market is vivified. Ultimately, in an ever-changing market of needs and human desires offering homogenous products would require a standardization of our indefinite needs and factors of production. Yet economists, according to Hayek, tend to be intolerant for these imperfections, when in actuality, focusing on comparison between an ideal and practical version is without use for the given facts. Hayek’s theories are undermined and treated as philosophical, rather than worthy of being incorporated into textbooks. As Steele in ‘Hayek’s The Pure Theory of Capital for The Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics’ denotes, Hayek’s theories are regarded as philosophical, rather than appreciated, and applied in the field (Steele, 2008). Keynes’ economic analysis manages to eclipse Hayek’s footnotes on the failures of these mainstream theories, thus leaving his influence visible, solely in sources outside the obligatory literature of economic studies. It worthy of mentioning, that his critiques despite not being mentioned in the majority of theoretical textbooks of economic studies, have been incorporated into the national policies of leaders such as Regan and

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