[AnthonyMouse]

> Free markets almost never can survive longterm without (sometimes extensive) regulation.

There is no such thing as "without regulation". Nobody is suggesting a system in which murder is legal and the most powerful warlord gets a monopoly.

But there is a difference between "the government enforces contracts and anti-trust laws and prices major externalities" and "the government micromanages the economy and is captured by the incumbents".

So for example, a free market doesn't need zoning density restrictions. Their absence has no apparent mechanism that would lead to a monopoly. Therefore, a freer market in which the government has no power to impose zoning density restrictions is better than the current one in which that is possible and is consequently making housing unaffordable. Depriving the government of the authority to do that is a viable mechanism by which that form of corruption/inefficiency is avoided.

> And then you have industries which simply can’t be allowed to be privately owned unless there is extensive regulation (because free competition is almost impossible in those sectors): utilities, banking, transportation etc. sometimes even telecom (e.g. roaming fees in the EU).

But even in these industries the necessary regulation is narrow and should be directed to isolating the natural monopoly from any other offering, e.g. roads are a natural monopoly but vehicle manufacturing isn't, so the government provides roads but the private market provides cars.

Conversely, the US has last mile ISPs providing phone and TV service, which isn't adequately isolating the last mile and then we get regulatory capture and corruption. It's not obvious they should even be providing transit, rather than having an entity that narrowly maintains the fiber in the street and does nothing else.

You're certainly right that it isn't just a matter of "more regulation" or "less regulation", but it is a matter of removing many of the existing regulations because they specifically are the source of the high costs and market concentration.

[jltsiren]

"The government" is a fictional entity. In reality, it's just a bunch of people.

I think the real issue is that free markets and free speech are not really compatible. If people are allowed to express political opinions, some opinions will inevitably become popular. Sometimes that happens because people don't like the outcomes of the market. Then they try to change things by regulating the market. Repeat that often enough, and you get more and more regulations over time.

[AnthonyMouse]

> If people are allowed to express political opinions, some opinions will inevitably become popular. Sometimes that happens because people don't like the outcomes of the market. Then they try to change things by regulating the market. Repeat that often enough, and you get more and more regulations over time.

This is not caused by free speech, it's caused by an error in the way our system was designed.

The premise was that something should not become law unless it has widespread buy-in. So the federal government had limited, specifically enumerated powers and passing a law required a majority of the House, a majority (or filibuster-proof majority) in the Senate (which was meant to represent the states) and the signature of the President (or a veto-proof majority in the legislature).

But we de facto interpreted out the enumerated powers by reading the commerce clause so expansively, and Senators are no longer appointed by state legislators so the states have no representation at the federal level anymore, which took the brakes off what legislation could be passed. Which severely exacerbated the main defect:

We made it just as hard to repeal a law as to pass it. So we keep accumulating laws there is no longer widespread consensus to keep, because the corrupt influences who want the law only need to control all three bodies once and then the law is stuck for as long as they can maintain control of even one.

It should be easier to repeal a law than to pass it.

[jltsiren]

You are missing the point.

Free speech is also the freedom to change the rules. If something becomes popular in the marketplace for ideas, there is always a way of turning it into a law. The exact procedures and thresholds may vary, but the possibility always exists. Because laws and constitutions don't enforce themselves. People enforce them, and those people (or their replacements) may choose to enforce them in a different way.

You say that repealing laws should be easier than passing them. But maybe the opposite idea wins in the market. Then it will be easier to pass a new law than to repeal an existing law. Under free speech, all laws, constitutions, and rights are ultimately temporary opinions subject to the whims of the market.

[defrost]

Some would argue that the freest markets are regulated to prevent collusion, to ensure free and equal access to all relevant infomation, to penalise deliberate falsehoods, etc.

Certainly the OG Free Markets that inspired the first order Invisible Hand model were.

'free market' is such a nebulous term, bandied about en masse in forums where rarely is it questioned what specific type of free market a specific person might mean.

[germandiago]

It is not nebulous actually. We are just playing with ideas, and ideas lead to simplification. The idea of free market, in principle is lasseiz faire.

Of course most people do not propose that. My idea is that, as one spanish philosopher said (taken from Hume), that all law (derecho in spanish, not sure if it is exactly equivalent for the meaning in english, since the law tradition in Spain comes from Roman law), so take my translation with a warning. All law can be summarized in two premises:

    1. "property is not acquired or lost by violence or fraud"
    2. "Deals must be fullfilled. Whoever does not fullfill their deals shall compensate to the side fullfilling it."

The rest is not "law" as such. It is ruling, administration, and other things, but not "law". It is arbitrary in many ways, and I agree this is true for a lot of what we see. For example: there are regulations for safety that will make people die waiting a medication or someone not able to get some transport vehicle for short distances, just because it is forbidden. But you can always find a reason to regulate. OTOH, you regulate the choices and lives of others, do we really have the right to decide for others? I think that is a very paternalistic view of things. But not only that, it often promotes irresponsibility in action: since they regulate, they can be blamed, I do not need to decide. I have seen lots of that attitude at least in my country.

It also promotes more scarcity and leads towards oligopolistic setups. It is a complex topic, but I favor freedom and responsibility over regulation clearly, as long as you do not damage others. In fact, regulations do damage others but people often take them for their intentions and not for their results ... something that is a big shocking to me. It is like it gives them peace of mind even if the reality has nothing to do with the effect they are expecting or imagining.

The translation could be pretty bad, so I apologize for that. I just hope it is understandable.

[germandiago]

As such we must be very aware of your first sentence. It is really important that people understand that those who manage us are people like us with their own set of interests.

Some people think it is something like an overlord that takes the perfect, most fair decision and, on top of that, without room for mistakes.

Looking at the results I would say it does not respond to that premise at all.

[germandiago]

As such we must be very aware of your first sentence. It is really important that people understand that those who manage us are people like us with their own set of interests.

Some people think it is something like an overload that takes the perfect, most fair decision and, on top of that, without room for mistakes.

Looking at the results I would say it does not respond to that premise at all.

[germandiago]

> There is no such thing as "without regulation"

No need to take my words literally. I you will, favor natural right and yes, put a bit of something on top. But this is not happening clearly. There is a lot of subsidizing and regulation. They are giving, literally, prizes to people that do nothing and punishments to people that kill themselves working. On the way, they have been swapping incentives from working hard to not work.

This in itself is a problem. Currently I see democracies as giant clientele systems. I am not far from the truth at all I think, at least in the case of my country (Spain).

[germandiago]

> So for example, a free market doesn't need zoning density restrictions. Their absence has no apparent mechanism that would lead to a monopoly. Therefore, a freer market in which the government has no power to impose zoning density restrictions is better than the current one in which that is possible and is consequently making housing unaffordable. Depriving the government of the authority to do that is a viable mechanism by which that form of corruption/inefficiency is avoided.

This is so well expressed. I take it for the future. Concise and clear. This is exactly the kind of things that come to my mind.