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by epistasis 594 days ago
Unregulated markets tending to monopolies means that markets require regulation, not that a monopoly is a market.

Unregulated markets are not the "natural" state of a market, and not the meaning of a "free" market. A free market is one in which there is competition and new agents are able to enter the market, not ones where there is no law.

1 comments

Wikipedia and the American Heritage Dictionary expressly disagree:

"In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any other external authority."

Good point, I shouldn't use the term "free" market. I mean a functioning market, as is intended by anti-monopoly law.