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What are the requirements for a free market to work well? And how do you define working well?
by karpierz 6y ago
What are the requirements for a free market to work well? And how do you define working well?
- WalterBright 6y ago> requirements for a free market to work well Most generally, transactions can be freely negotiated by either party. I.e. no force or fraud. Contracts need to be enforceable. Individual liberties must be guaranteed. > working well Delivering on prosperity. To clarify, imperfect information is not fraud. Force in this context is something proactively applied, such as your signature will be on the contract or your brains. Force is not withholding something you have that the other party needs. Charity, voluntarily helping others in need, etc., is perfectly in line with free market principles. Unions are perfectly in line, too, although laws bestowing monopoly powers on unions are not. A free market does not have to be a perfect free market in order to deliver prosperity. Even small amounts of free markets can have outsized positive benefits, as the Soviet Union discovered when it allowed farmers to farm small plots, sell the produce, and pocket the proceeds.
- karpierz 6y agoWhat does "delivering on prosperity" mean? Is that GDP per capita? Life expectancy? Number of iOS apps produced?
- WalterBright 6y agoA rough measure is GDP growth per capita. Life expectancy was a good proxy in the 1800s because it improved dramatically, but now it has asymptotically approached a biological limit so is less useful. The same for average height.
- vladTheInhaler 6y agoAs evident from their replies elsewhere in the thread, working well means that they personally are well-compensated.