It really depends what “most optimal” means. For example, our regulatory system today is the result of companies crossing a line that society is unhappy with:

It really depends what “most optimal” means. For example, our regulatory system today is the result of companies crossing a line that society is unhappy with: - Massive pollution. Think of the burning Cuyahoga River or the terribly smoggy Pittsburgh. - Horrible working conditions. Where plenty of employees (including children) were forced to work more hours than healthy, and in environments which kill them. A similar modern example is hospitals price gouging super basic medical supplies. Those are the natural results of companies operating in a purely profit-driven manner. A laissez-faire economy has no concept of morality or rights, just of profit. Given that most people are completely unwilling to live under those sorts of conditions, our society has interjected itself into the economy to protect our rights. That happens via government regulation. If we remove regulations and “stop meddling with the economy,” companies will take the cheapest route to profit, because they basically have to. With no regulations, that means many companies won’t build expensive filtering systems to reduce pollution or wool quickly disregard expensive or time consuming safety rules. I’m also not convinced that laissez-faire actually works at all when the primary goal of the sector in question ought to be different from profit. A great example is health care, where the primary goal should be human well-being and health, but being profit focused would be completely at odds. If you’re profit-focused, there’s nothing stopping you from fixing prices very high because the person getting emergency services doesn’t have a chance to shop around or look at competition. In fact, any place that competition can’t or doesn’t exist is very bad for society and consumers. Any sort of monopoly means prices are very high and quality is very low. And monopolies always form over time in a laissez-fairs economy because it’s the best way to increase profit. And yet this is completely to the detriment of society and consumers —- e.g. to the detriment of everyone who exists. (I would posit that even a Walmart exec would have parts of their life that would be better if Walmart wasn’t monopolizing small markets.) How do these problems get solved without “meddling” in the economy?