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by tomp 3866 days ago
That's because those free market capitalists are (at best) hypocrites or (at worst) stupid. Obviously capitalism relies on regulation - of property rights, IP rights, contract laws, bans on fraud and insider trading (although opinions are mixed on that last one), ...
1 comments
ZenoArrow 3866 days ago
Free market capitalists argue that what we have now is not a free market. IP rights wouldn't exist in a free market system, for example.

It's probably best to find another term to describe the market you see working, as 'free market' is what free market capitalists argue for. I don't know what a better term would be, but I'm sure that economists would've thought of one.

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tomp 3866 days ago
But what would exist in this ideal "free" market? IMO, without contract law and courts that enforce it and persecute fraud, you can't have a functional market (free or unfree). Also, without some laws that monopolize violence, the market would be much more, well, violent (you might think of that as "free", but I don't think that kind of freedom is beneficial to the society) - we can see that in numerous places on Earth right now, where there is no effective "government" and you have multiple factions fighting for power - it rarely encourages trade and entrepreneurship.
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ZenoArrow 3866 days ago
I'm not advocating for free market economics, I'm only passing on information about what it means. The Wikipedia page is a fairly decent introduction:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market

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