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> Yes, we are a free-market Honestly - no we (America) are not. A free market would have: - Let all of the major banks fail - No (or limited) Federal Reserve
by mbesto 5y ago
> Yes, we are a free-market
Honestly - no we (America) are not. A free market would have:
- Let all of the major banks fail
- No (or limited) Federal Reserve
- Disallowed the various regulatory capture (Foxconn's building in WI, Intuit's stronghold on pay taxes, etc. etc.)
- AT&T wouldn't have been broken up
- etc. etc.
- chrstphrknwtn 5y agoAlso, various industries would never be subsidised; automotive production in the US would have disappeared decades ago in a truly free market.
- nickff 5y agoIt might have been re-organized with a different cost-structure and different product portfolio, though I agree that the 'big three' would not exist in their current form.
- pottertheotter 5y agoI agree that we don't have a free market, but how do you get to "AT&T wouldn't have been broken up" as evidence of that? It's exactly the opposite.
- Dracophoenix 5y agoIn this hypothetical laissez-faire USA, AT&T would not have been granted a monopoly to begin with (what allowed the company to metastasize into Ma Bell) in addition to not having been broken up so long as any monopoly AT&T achieved (or failed to achieve) was accomplished on its own merits. Thus the previous post is technically correct about the outcome, but probably for the wrong reasons (i.e. failing to account that Ma Bell itself was not a product of the free market)
- mbesto 5y agoI'm the parent - I agreed with pretty much everything you said.
- spaetzleesser 5y agoA free market would also have: - Child labor - Terrible workplace safety (see steel mills in the 1800s) - Polluted rivers - Monopolistic companies that buy up competition
- majani 5y agoFor the last point : Facebook bought all the potential Facebook replacements