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by lumberjack 3911 days ago
Why is it always "free markets" but never "competitive markets"?

Also last I checked Facebook and Google were operating in very free markets and yet they don't really have any competition.

2 comments

Search Engine Market Share:

Google 67% Yahoo 10% Bing: 10% Baidu: 8% AOL: 1% Other: 2%

Just because 67% of consumers are choosing Google search despite a myriad of other options, doesn't make it a monopoly nor does it mean they don't have competition. Google is constantly being pushed by its competitors to improve and maintain its marketshare.

Google is also competing with every type of advertising on the planet.

> Why is it always "free markets" but never "competitive markets"?

I would put my money on newspeak. "Free" sounds more positive than "competitive". Freedom is like always good, while competition makes it clear that there will be losers as well as winners.

It's also much harder to be against freedom than competition. Often, we want cooperation instead of competition. But what could possibly replace freedom?