Functionalist Roles of Markets and Misers in Candace Allen and Dwight Lee's In Defense Of Markets And Misers People have always created thoughts and attitudes towards particular people or phenomena in the society based on their/its: (a) benefits to people and (b) potential inconveniences that the person or phenomenon can cause them. This is exactly the main thesis that Candace Allen and Dwight Lee confronts and explores in the article, In Defense of Markets and Misers. Using the functionalist perspective and deviating from the general opinion, Allen and Lee discusses how, in an indirect manner, markets and misers contribute to economic growth and developed. The authors used as tools for analysis the economic framework, where they can best explain how markets and misers play a vital role in the development of a nation's economy, particularly in lowering prices of goods and commodities and increasing the spending power of the consumers (people).

The theoretical framework adopted in the analysis illustrates how the seemingly simple, yet critical look of society towards markets and misers changes when it is viewed in a different perspective. Allen and Lee opted to deviate from the common argument that markets only exists for profit and market dominance; instead, they authors chose to provide a functional view of markets as a vital component to compensate for the decreases and loss of economic wealth in the society...

In the same manner, they also discussed how misers, although viewed as non-contributors of wealth in the nation's economy, has, surprisingly, essential function that increases the society's purchasing power by lowering the price of commodities. These macro- and micro-economic perspectives (markets and misers, respectively) reflect how both serve as "balancing forces" that seek to stabilize the adverse effects of two social components often considered as beneficial to society: the government and philanthropists.
In arguing that markets and misers are functional to the society, particularly in the welfare of people and the development of the society's economy, Allen and Lee conducted a comparative analysis of both components by two concepts: the government and philanthropists. At the macroeconomic level, the authors discuss the issue of the functionality of markets vis-a-vis the economy by comparing it with the government. By focusing on the "bias in favor of politics over markets," Allen and Lee asserted that wrong perceptions about the two, wherein the supposed 'fairness' of the government and unfairness of markets are perpetuated. Contradicting this view, the authors asserted, "government activities, although they destroy wealth, are often popular because the benefits are concentrated and the costs are widely dispersed."

This assertion illustrates how generalities about the benefits…