4 ms·

I'm starting to think the "Free Market" doesn't exist and it's really just a platonic ideal.

by BitwiseFool 6y ago

trident5000 6y ago
Free markets exist when the DOJ does its job.
- nextaccountic 6y ago
  Do you mean that the very existence of free markets depends on strict governmental regulation? Without state intervention, free market don't remain free on its own? So, what is free about free markets?
  - trident5000 6y ago
    The concept that the govt is a director of the free markets and ensure they remain competitive is older than years you have on this earth.
  - joshuamorton 6y ago
    This is how Adam Smith described free markets, potentially influenced by regulation to ensure monopolies and rent seeking didn't exist. In that framing, the market is free from economic privilege, and individual actors are free to compete on equal footing.
    - nextaccountic 6y ago
      Thanks, this makes sense. What confuses me is the overloading of "free market" to mean something opposed to government intervention.
      - trident5000 6y ago
        Government set the rules in free markets. A free market is a competitive market with even rules for all participants.
      - joshuamorton 6y ago
        Yes, lots of anti-regulation people have taken a specific brand of free-market capitalism (arguably even an extremist brand of laissez-faire free-market capitalism) and tried to make that the only "real" market economy. Free market socialism isn't a contradiction, despite what many would have you believe (think: worker owned co-operatives and nonprofits that compete in the broader market). Similarly, market economies need not be wholly unregulated to be good. And indeed, I think you'd be hard pressed to find mainstream economists who claim that worker safety regulations are bad (like, they might be able to point to particular regulations that are dumb, but there are many that are not).
  - jl2718 6y ago
    Seems like a general concept. The concept of government is actually a forceful limitation on the powers that would be exercised in a state of anarchy. Otherwise theres no distinction between ‘government’ run by a dictator, and anarchy with a singularly powerful individual. Of course the distinction can be rationalized away further in terms of collective power until the only thing left is a theocracy. But practically, .... actually I don’t know anymore.

I'm starting to think the "Free Market" doesn't exist and it's really just a platonic ideal.

trident5000 6y ago

Free markets exist when the DOJ does its job.

nextaccountic 6y ago
Do you mean that the very existence of free markets depends on strict governmental regulation? Without state intervention, free market don't remain free on its own? So, what is free about free markets?
- trident5000 6y ago
  The concept that the govt is a director of the free markets and ensure they remain competitive is older than years you have on this earth.
- joshuamorton 6y ago
  This is how Adam Smith described free markets, potentially influenced by regulation to ensure monopolies and rent seeking didn't exist. In that framing, the market is free from economic privilege, and individual actors are free to compete on equal footing.
  - nextaccountic 6y ago
    Thanks, this makes sense. What confuses me is the overloading of "free market" to mean something opposed to government intervention.
    - trident5000 6y ago
      Government set the rules in free markets. A free market is a competitive market with even rules for all participants.
    - joshuamorton 6y ago
      Yes, lots of anti-regulation people have taken a specific brand of free-market capitalism (arguably even an extremist brand of laissez-faire free-market capitalism) and tried to make that the only "real" market economy. Free market socialism isn't a contradiction, despite what many would have you believe (think: worker owned co-operatives and nonprofits that compete in the broader market). Similarly, market economies need not be wholly unregulated to be good. And indeed, I think you'd be hard pressed to find mainstream economists who claim that worker safety regulations are bad (like, they might be able to point to particular regulations that are dumb, but there are many that are not).
- jl2718 6y ago
  Seems like a general concept. The concept of government is actually a forceful limitation on the powers that would be exercised in a state of anarchy. Otherwise theres no distinction between ‘government’ run by a dictator, and anarchy with a singularly powerful individual. Of course the distinction can be rationalized away further in terms of collective power until the only thing left is a theocracy. But practically, .... actually I don’t know anymore.