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This is a common refrain but just false, restrictions and regulations are very often the only thing guaranteeing liberty. We’re often told “free market good, go

by c54 5y ago

This is a common refrain but just false, restrictions and regulations are very often the only thing guaranteeing liberty. We’re often told “free market good, government bad” but the reality is somewhere in the middle (without even getting into the fact that the free market is itself created through government regulation) I’d recommend checking out Mike Konzcal’s recent book Freedom From The Market https://thenewpress.com/books/freedom-from-market https://thenewpress.com/books/freedom-from-market

nybble41 5y ago
The free market is voluntary exchange without aggression (initiation of violence)–that's the "free" part. Far from being created by government, the free market is utterly incompatible with the claim to "legitimate" initiation of violence, which is the defining characteristic of any government and how it enforces its restrictions and regulations. You can have a market economy with a government, but it won't be a free market. People are perfectly capable of trading with each other on a voluntary basis without requiring any restrictions or regulations or any other form of violence. And if violence does occur people are perfectly entitled to respond in self-defense without depending on any government to intervene.
- c54 5y ago
  I see what you’re saying, but it’s just not true. Trade takes the form of exchange of the rights of ownership, and this is a right enforced by government. For example, if I own a house, the house doesn’t care who does what. The owner is the one with the right to call the cops if a non-owner comes in unwanted. This instantly becomes an appeal to violence and the government. This is even more true in the modern sense of the free market, financial markets exchange very little actual physical goods, the thing being traded is rights to contracts, rights which are guaranteed by the government regulator. The only place this isn’t quite true is with blockchain based assets.

by c54 5y ago

nybble41 5y ago

The free market is voluntary exchange without aggression (initiation of violence)–that's the "free" part. Far from being created by government, the free market is utterly incompatible with the claim to "legitimate" initiation of violence, which is the defining characteristic of any government and how it enforces its restrictions and regulations. You can have a market economy with a government, but it won't be a free market. People are perfectly capable of trading with each other on a voluntary basis without requiring any restrictions or regulations or any other form of violence. And if violence does occur people are perfectly entitled to respond in self-defense without depending on any government to intervene.

c54 5y ago
I see what you’re saying, but it’s just not true. Trade takes the form of exchange of the rights of ownership, and this is a right enforced by government. For example, if I own a house, the house doesn’t care who does what. The owner is the one with the right to call the cops if a non-owner comes in unwanted. This instantly becomes an appeal to violence and the government. This is even more true in the modern sense of the free market, financial markets exchange very little actual physical goods, the thing being traded is rights to contracts, rights which are guaranteed by the government regulator. The only place this isn’t quite true is with blockchain based assets.