RAINBOW PARTY, SOCIALISM & FREE MARKET

Capitalism suggests that a free market will result in allocative efficiency of resources and distributive justice in goods, services and incomes.

However, in practice, in Zambia and elsewhere, a free market has not always produced the desired ends of competition that guarantees efficient allocation of resources and fairness in the production and distribution of goods, services and incomes.

 

In reality, there has been a tendency towards concentration, leading to monopolies and oligopolies in key markets. As a result, few powerful players have ended up exploiting the labour and goods and services markets, and in maximising their profits, they have freely suppressed wages, inflated prices and pursued economic goals at the expense of public interest. This is where a free market fails to achieve its purpose.

 

A Rainbow Party government will fill the ethical void left by such market failures by deploying a regulatory regime that shields public interest from unrestrained markets forces.

Rainbow Party will NOT run business or kill the private sector. Rainbow Party will utilise an efficient regulatory framework that will CHECK the markets to ensure public interest and welfare is protected and to ensure the social goals of government and the people are not harmed by market failure. So it is not true that our socialist agenda is geared towards nationalisation and state-run enterprises.

 

We are for an efficient and effective policy and regulatory framework. Currently the economy and market is free and free to be exploited, because their isn’t any system of regulation that protects the citizens against market failure, both in terms of the security of their jobs and wages, and in the choice and cost of goods and services.