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The justification must come from the free market, if free market is to be the moral system. How can there exist a free market without the guarantee of the prot
by tkahn6 17y ago
The justification must come from the free market, if free market is to be the moral system.
How can there exist a free market without the guarantee of the protection of private property? Without that you have anarchy (whoever is physically strongest wins).
I've never heard of someone invoking the idea of a "free market" without implying that the agents of the market are protected from physical harm.
This is by no means 'official' but from the first sentence of the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market:
"A free market is a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to outlaw and prosecute force or fraud."
When people say "free market" this is what they imply.
What, in a free market moral system, prevents slavery?
The government.
- CWuestefeld 17y agoHow can there exist a free market without the guarantee of the protection of private property? Without that you have anarchy See "anarcho-capitalism": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism In an anarcho-capitalist society, law enforcement, courts, and all other security services would be provided by voluntarily-funded competitors such as private defense agencies rather than through taxation, and money would be privately and competitively provided in an open market. You continue... > > What, in a free market moral system, prevents slavery? > The government. No. Slavery is prevented because the income generated by those would-be slaves is less than the income generated when those people fill the role of "consumer". Also, if there are non-consensual exchanges, then by definition it is not a free market, but that simply avoids the question...
- Psyonic 17y agoHow do you figure that prevents slavery? It doesn't prevent slavery right now... buying a russian sex slave and making her work 12 hour days in a club seems to generate a lot more income than she would as a "consumer".
- CWuestefeld 17y agoI could turn the question around and ask you how the government prevents this, as the foundation of your question assumes that it's not doing so.
- Psyonic 17y agoIt doesn't. I was just curious why you thought the market was any different. That said: the government does make an effort to prevent it, which I'm not sure can be said for the free market.
- CWuestefeld 17y agoHmmm. I gave this a little thought as I drove home, and I think I've got the answer. On the whole, both regulation and the free market are able to deal with most of slavery. But at the margin, it becomes cost-ineffective to mop up the very last instance. In both cases, the instance is low enough that most of us will never come face-to-face with slavery. But ferreting out one more evil person costs society more than it would benefit.
- Psyonic 17y agoI'll give you that. I wouldn't expect to see rampant slavery in a truly free-market society. There aren't many people who would voluntary choose to become one, though no doubt they exist. And I definitely agree with you that it's too expensive to try and eliminate ALL slavery (not just in dollars, but in rights.) The thing that scares me about a truly free market without regulation are issues of coercion. Force may be eliminated, but there are so many other ways to take advantage of compromised people. Drug addicts, homeless, desperate parents, etc. Also, for a truly free market to work, you need enough information on both sides for people to make educated choices, but either side would prefer he have the information advantage. Basically, I just don't see it working any better than the current system, but perhaps it would.