Capitalism is a wonderful mechanism for cost-effective regulation. This might be counter-intuitive as airwaves are filled with the darker side of capitalism. But free-market societies with personal rights protection and profit incentives surely have less crime. One reason is because these societies tend to be richer. But another is because in a free-market society there is a well-defined zero-sum game: that one person’s gain is another person’s loss. This system places the onus of regulation on the very people who have the most to gain from whistle-blowing.

Two particular events illustrate this concept. One is Greyhound’s order to the London Rocket (a company started by two Queen’s Commerce students) to “cease and desist” on the basis that a license is required to transport paying customers on Ontario highways. On the issue, I am respectfully neutral. What it illustrates is that the Ontario Highway Transportation Board had no need to regulate its jurisdiction; Greyhound did it out of profit motive. Greyhound only called out the London Rocket, an ancillary operation to the company’s flagship route (Kingston). Greyhound doesn’t run trips to Kingston and thus had no motive to blow the whistle.

A second event is more particular to the Queen’s Commerce program. It had a run-in that could have tipped our reputable program into notoriety. It would probably have escaped the notice of administration. But it was stopped by students who felt a responsibility to their program and interested in keeping their school (and thus their resumes) from the overhang of scandal.

There is no doubt that capitalism needs reform. But its many redeeming qualities should not be forgotten. I think its ability to create fairness is a most important of these qualities.