Vrye mededinging in Suid-Afrika en akademiese verantwoordelikheid

Inaugural lecture--Department of Economics, Rand Afrikaans University, 12 September 1978@@Although few people may realise it, the free enterprise system occupies a front line position in the onslaught against South Africa. It is therefore important that we are aware of the advantages as well as the disadvantages of the system in order that we do not cherish expectations which cannot materialise. The free enterprise system is a sophisticated way of organising the economic life of a country. For this reason students must be trained thoroughly in the basics of the theory of free enterprise, which requires, of course, a high quality of refined teaching. This, in turn, necessitates more frequent use of mathematics in the training of economics for the sake of a better understanding of economics itself. It seems as if the free enterprise system achieves the best results, all over the world, from the point of view of efficiency, but it does have shortcomings as well. The most important failures relate to the distribution of income, external costs associated with certain economic actions, deviations from perfect competition which are already irrevocably institutionalized into the system and so-called collective goods which can only be supplied by a government. As an economy grows, these problems increase more than proportionately. Consequently an ever-growing need for government production on pure economic grounds arises and it would be erroneous to talk of creeping socialism solely on account of a relative increase in government expenditure. It seems also that it may be necessary, in some cases, to actually encourage the concentration of economic power, in order to counteract other irremovable concentrations. The advantages of free enterprise for South Africa must be sought far beyond the traditional arguments and relate, in fact, to a community's view of life itself. The discipline of free enterprise nourishes tolerance towards your adversaries and it supplies the people with personal property which they will be prepared to defend. A very important characteristic of the system of free enterprise is the fact that it teaches people to outwit their competitors by their intellect, rather than to remove them physically. This, no doubt, creates a community in which one may live a pleasant life in safety.