No, I believe that multiple weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation would have hurt America in time. One of the biggest problems was the lack of detail and specific attributes that the Constitution brings from long discussion and debates over what is best for the country. America needed to strengthen it's central government if it wanted to get anywhere, so we may not have become so powerful if we left the majority of the power in the state's hands. Another lacking component was the fact that we had no Executive branch to enforce Congress' laws and no National court to determine the meaning of the laws. Another example is the making of one currency for the entire country. These examples and more could have hurt America if they wouldn't have written the Constitution.
Athena was the goddess in charge of defending them
As I understand it, Laissez-faire ideology maintains that the "free market" is the best way to determine what businesses can and should do. This means that businesses, in competition with one another, should be free to determine their paths free from any government rules or regulations. The belief is that the competition among various businesses will ultimately result in the best outcomes for society in general - Adam Smith's "invisible hand". As part of this philosophy, workers should also be free to compete with each other and choose to work wherever they wish and this process will also result in the best results for the workers as well.
However, isn't there a huge assumption in this philosophy? Doesn't the whole justification of this belief depends on the condition that there is perfect competition and that any company and any worker have the equal ability to compete with one another?
What if there is no perfect competition? What if some companies have advantages - due to any of a whole array of reasons - that place them in a non-competitive position vis a vis their competitors? Without perfect competition then other companies are not necessarily able to compete with other companies that have certain advantages. If such a situation exists, then advantaged companies may have the ability to pursue a course that results in their private benefit, but not necessarily to the benefit of society as a whole. The same would apply to workers in that reduced competition among companies would result in decreased leverage for potential employees.
To recap, if the Laissez-faire ideology maintains the best economic policy for society as a whole, and it depends on there being perfect competition on an ongoing basis with minimal government intervention, doesn't it fall apart if there is less than the perfect competition?
