A Stitch in Haste

How's that innovative new concept, "Market-Based Communism," working out in China?

China will not allow any new Internet cafes to open this year, state media reported Tuesday.

The Xinhua News Agency said 14 government departments, including the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information Industry, had issued a notice saying that "in 2007, local governments must not sanction the opening of new Internet bars."
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The Chinese government promotes Internet use for education and business, but tries to block the public from seeing material online that is deemed subversive or pornographic.

Strange, I always thought that, in a market economy, an entrepreneur was free to open a business and run it as he saw fit. Regulation, in a market economy, is to be minimal, objective and local, to the greatest extent possible. Oh, and apolitical.

In a market-based economy, restrictions on businesses are only proper when externalities are present, such as noise or pollution. And while Communist dictators no doubt consider Internet cafes (not to mention this blog) to be cesspools of (political) "noise" and "pollution," it's not the kind that market-based economies, or civilized societies, recognize as legitimate externalities.

There's more, much more, to a "market economy" than some neat-o skyscrapers.