| Since no country has tried it, no one knows, but I'm sure that won't stop a bunch of sarcastic replies. I'm going to treat this as some kind of fun thought experiment and ignore a lot of the details. I've always thought some form an ultra free market oriented society could work. But... 1: The first problems I wonder about is that the system is relying on individuals to be making actively intelligent decisions. How convinced are you of intelligence of the medium person? For power not to concentrate into too few hands, a large percentage of the population has to actively react to shifts in wealth, morality and power. I'm hesitate to declare this would work. 2: Can a free market naturally produce a safety net? Maybe. It is likely in order for society to function in a healthy manner one would need something to help the down and out. Shit happens, life isn't fair, bad decisions need help being corrected. I think it is more likely a government would have to provide some of this net. I've always thought creating a 'human right' to a basic income (say you get $5000 a year no matter what) paired with an ultra free market society would be interesting. Would it be the best? Idk. But it would certainly be interesting to try. (I think Hayek said something vaguely similar) 3: Tragedy of the commons. We aren't trapped as a species to forever repeat destroying the commons. But it sure as hell happens a lot. Pollution much like crime needs a government force to reign it in. There is no market solution to it. Something like a park system is likely similar. But overall, as a planetary body of people, I think we're due to trying something new soon. We've spent the last 100 years or so converting most places to mixed-economy democracy. We should probably start to try other interesting systems. Kind of like what Denmark is doing. They are going in the other direction completely, but it is interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Denmark |