[alistproducer2]

What is your definition of a free market? I see this so often but few people seem to understand the inherent contradiction. If a market is truly free it will naturally tend toward monopoly thereby extinguishing itself. If it is regulated to prevent it's own destruction, it ceases to be truly free. In either case it is a transient condition. A brief glorious moment in time that cannot, by its own definition, be anything more than ephemeral.

[alasdair_]

It’s possible to have laws that increase freedom overall. For example: a law against murder restricts some people (the murderer) but frees many more people from (their victims).

Markets can be regulated to make them more free as well - if we pass a law to enforce mutually agreed upon contracts, some people (those that would go against the contract) have their freedom restricted but the market as a whole now has a trust mechanism allowing them to actually hold others accountable and thus overall it improves society.

“Free market” still implies certain restrictions, like “no stealing the other person’s stuff”.