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A market in which the consumer cannot get access to all information about the market is not a free market at all. Information availability is a key part of the

by zizee 13y ago

A market in which the consumer cannot get access to all information about the market is not a free market at all. Information availability is a key part of the definition of a free market.

radarsat1 13y ago
Not sure. How does this interact with the ideas of Trade Secrets and the patent system? The latter is to encourage dissemination of the former in exchange for temporary monopoly. One would usually argue that the ability to keep trade secrets is the more "free" market, yet we have decided that there are long-term societal benefits to dissemination so we provide government protection of ideas. Since Libertarians would say that this protection represents some form of government intervention, I would say that the idea of secrets is fairly fundamental to the idealists' free market. Of course, whether or not patents are a good idea is debatable, but that's another question. My point is that I don't agree that transparency is a fundamental aspect of the free market, I haven't heard that argument before and don't see how the free market even encourages it. Sure, people might request a certain amount of transparency, but no more transparency will be provided than that which is demanded by consumers -- and we have seen quite frequently that consumers are quite willing to be kept in the dark to a certain extent.
- zizee 13y ago
  I'm not trying to debate the merits of trade secrets and the patent system. I was simply making the point that if you have a market where consumers don't have access to perfect information, it is not a free market. The term "Free Market" has a very specific definition. Information accessibility is a very important part of that definition. It is very difficult for all the criteria to be met, so you will never find a perfectly free market outside textbooks. People talk about "free markets" all the time, especially business lobbyists/PR. Usually they use the term "free market" to mean the government should get the hell out of their way, but they often don't really want a free market (especially if they are the incumbents). They have effectively co-opted the term to help their narratives, confusing people in the process.

by zizee 13y ago

A market in which the consumer cannot get access to all information about the market is not a free market at all. Information availability is a key part of the definition of a free market.

radarsat1 13y ago

Not sure. How does this interact with the ideas of Trade Secrets and the patent system? The latter is to encourage dissemination of the former in exchange for temporary monopoly. One would usually argue that the ability to keep trade secrets is the more "free" market, yet we have decided that there are long-term societal benefits to dissemination so we provide government protection of ideas. Since Libertarians would say that this protection represents some form of government intervention, I would say that the idea of secrets is fairly fundamental to the idealists' free market. Of course, whether or not patents are a good idea is debatable, but that's another question. My point is that I don't agree that transparency is a fundamental aspect of the free market, I haven't heard that argument before and don't see how the free market even encourages it. Sure, people might request a certain amount of transparency, but no more transparency will be provided than that which is demanded by consumers -- and we have seen quite frequently that consumers are quite willing to be kept in the dark to a certain extent.

zizee 13y ago
I'm not trying to debate the merits of trade secrets and the patent system. I was simply making the point that if you have a market where consumers don't have access to perfect information, it is not a free market. The term "Free Market" has a very specific definition. Information accessibility is a very important part of that definition. It is very difficult for all the criteria to be met, so you will never find a perfectly free market outside textbooks. People talk about "free markets" all the time, especially business lobbyists/PR. Usually they use the term "free market" to mean the government should get the hell out of their way, but they often don't really want a free market (especially if they are the incumbents). They have effectively co-opted the term to help their narratives, confusing people in the process.