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But what guarantees this freedom? And as I understand it, it doesn't prevent monopolies from forming, it is meant to restrict monopolies from controlling the ma

But what guarantees this freedom? And as I understand it, it doesn't prevent monopolies from forming, it is meant to restrict monopolies from controlling the market. According to wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market "... are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority." The government is supposed to step in to block monopolies from controlling the market, but that implies that the government is intervening in the market. All I was pointing out is that there is no perfect system where politics, monopolies and private interests won't compete to control the market.

shmerl 10y ago
> But what guarantees this freedom? That's up to the society which wants to have a free market. For instance, anti-trust laws is one way of doing it. > The government is supposed to step in to block monopolies from controlling the market, but that implies that the government is intervening in the market. Someone should to step in here, whether it's government or not, is another question. But clearly, if market has no way of preventing a monopoly, it's not really free.
- mannykannot 10y ago
  > Someone should to step in here, whether it's government or not, is another question. Actually, it is the central question, because without a feasible answer all you have is a fine-sounding principle that is utterly infeasible.
  - shmerl 10y ago
    It's the same question of how society is regulating things. It's quite a broad subject, but we were talking about the principle here.