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For the same reason I don't drive my car as if it were a frictionless and spherical point mass. It's an idealized and fictional construct that is useful only i

For the same reason I don't drive my car as if it were a frictionless and spherical point mass. It's an idealized and fictional construct that is useful only insofar as a model by which to derive principals that can be applied to reality. Much as we do not have a theory of everything in physics because, despite our incredible talent as a species for constructing models and deriving principals, we have yet to come to a coherent model that directly maps to reality fully, we do not yet have some kind of economic theory of everything. Your repeated assertions of "belief in the free market" read to me much as a a religious belief, in that they are assertions of the mechanisms by which things work, despite repeatedly clashing with ground state reality. In my view they are, at best, simplistic representations of some other mechanism. I am actually quite a big fan of markets, and am interested in finance, trading, business, etc. But I am not a market ideologue, nor am I naive enough to think that someone has come up with a perfect economic system - especially when it is claimed to somehow harness for good and neutralize humanity's near infinite capacity for greed and evil.

WalterBright 4y ago
One doesn't need to believe in the free market in order for it to work, and it doesn't need to be a perfect free market to work. The more free market it is, the better it works. It's not religion, it's borne out by history. Countries that move towards free markets grow more prosperous, those that move away, less. The ones that do the worst are full on communism. > despite repeatedly clashing with ground state reality I've replied to all those claims of it clashing with reality. Most of them are based on the notion that free markets do not proscribe the use of fraud and force against others. The rest are often claims that free markets tend directly to monopolies, although the proponents are never able to identify any free market monopolies. Want a cite? Here's one. The US, in its first century, excluding the slave south. Was it an ideal free market? Nope. It's hard to argue with its resounding success. Compare it to the South American countries, which had no such success. Want another? The German Miracle, 1946 or so to 1970. Japan, post war to around 1990. Hong Kong in the 1960s turned to free markets, look at the results - GDP grew 18,000% from 1961-1987 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Hong_Kong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Hong_Kong If free markets are a religion, they certainly are a religion that delivers results whether or not the participants believe in it. > especially when it is claimed to somehow harness for good and neutralize humanity's near infinite capacity for greed and evil. It harnesses the selfishness in all of us. As for "somehow", the how is straightforward. To make money (a selfish motive) one has to provide a good or service that others find worth their money. If one tries to make money by stealing, cheating, defrauding, enslaving, extortion, blackmail, or murdering, one goes to jail.

WalterBright 4y ago

One doesn't need to believe in the free market in order for it to work, and it doesn't need to be a perfect free market to work. The more free market it is, the better it works. It's not religion, it's borne out by history. Countries that move towards free markets grow more prosperous, those that move away, less. The ones that do the worst are full on communism. > despite repeatedly clashing with ground state reality I've replied to all those claims of it clashing with reality. Most of them are based on the notion that free markets do not proscribe the use of fraud and force against others. The rest are often claims that free markets tend directly to monopolies, although the proponents are never able to identify any free market monopolies. Want a cite? Here's one. The US, in its first century, excluding the slave south. Was it an ideal free market? Nope. It's hard to argue with its resounding success. Compare it to the South American countries, which had no such success. Want another? The German Miracle, 1946 or so to 1970. Japan, post war to around 1990. Hong Kong in the 1960s turned to free markets, look at the results - GDP grew 18,000% from 1961-1987 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Hong_Kong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Hong_Kong If free markets are a religion, they certainly are a religion that delivers results whether or not the participants believe in it. > especially when it is claimed to somehow harness for good and neutralize humanity's near infinite capacity for greed and evil. It harnesses the selfishness in all of us. As for "somehow", the how is straightforward. To make money (a selfish motive) one has to provide a good or service that others find worth their money. If one tries to make money by stealing, cheating, defrauding, enslaving, extortion, blackmail, or murdering, one goes to jail.