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by 0x3f 68 days ago
Right, those are the current technologies we have to make markets work in a particular way. They don't preclude other technologies which work with freer markets.

Like there's a whole zoo of healthcare provision approaches, for example. Single payer can work fine (ala Norway), but so can Bismarck (ala Switzerland). The latter is a technological architecture that _enables_ similar or better outcomes, while being closer to a fully market-based approach.
1 comments
littlestymaar 68 days ago
It's not “closer to a fully market-based approach” any more than climbing a hill makes you closer to the moon.

Also, if you call regulations “technologies” (which I don't disagree with) then “free market” means technology-free.

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0x3f 68 days ago
But climbing a hill does make you closer to the moon. There's nothing wrong with incremental progress towards a goal, assuming this is a goal for the free-market people.

Also, I'm not sure a free market is technology-free per se. What you're talking about is specifically ancap-like, but most free market frameworks involve a state actor that should (among other things) not allow for itself to be weaponized against other market participants.

Like the paradox of tolerance, you can't tolerate a free market for bribing your way to benefit from the state's monopoly on violence. I don't think the existence of this paradox destroys the value of free markets or tolerance.

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littlestymaar 68 days ago
> But climbing a hill does make you closer to the moon. There's nothing wrong with incremental progress towards a goal,

I'm sorry to tell you we don't build spaceports on top of mountain, for a reason.

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