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by andrekandre 5 days ago
well free markets meant something very different in adam smith's time; what they meant by free was 'free from rents' whereas today its usually mean in the milton freedman terms as 'free from any interference' which is how i interpret the parent poster...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market#Classical_Economic...
3 comments
einpoklum 5 days ago
D: "I want to be free" by Milton Schulman.

H: Milton Friedman.

D: Why are they all called Milton? Anyway, I've only got as far as Milton Keynes.

H: Maynard Keynes.

D: I'm sure there's a Milton Keynes.

H: Yes, there is, but it's... [appears quite miffed]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgUemV4brDU

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wasfgwp 4 days ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Keynes

Coincidentally it’s where the British version of the Office is set

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yunnpp 5 days ago
It's not free from interference either. It requires enforcing antitrust, for example, which the US seems to have forgotten. Literally what you quoted:

> the term free market refers to a market free from all forms of economic privilege, monopolies and artificial scarcities.

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andrekandre 4 days ago
yep, to keep them "free" you have to "interefere" with them

as an aide, the overloading of the term free is really annoying because it muddles things so much...

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wasfgwp 4 days ago
> free from any interference

That’s even less true in the US these days, though

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