Free Markets Are a Contradiction

[juliusaugustus]

There is no such thing as a free market for it is a contradiction in terms. Markets come into being because the government declares something good for the payment of taxes. Land and resources are excluded from people using violence. Courts uphold contracts. All of those things require force and intervention from the state. A free market can't exist because markets require coercion to exist and it is for this reason most market thinkers accept government and dislike anarchism.

[Dean]

I don't think governments are only interested in tax dollars. Graft goes far beyond that, and many of the most lucrative "free market" enterprises for the government are also the least taxed.

This brings to light a more fundamental problem for market ideology, that is the simplistic view of incentives. Market ideology frames the workings of corporations as consumer-driven, and based on the legitimate acquisition of labor and resources without government help. But it is in breaking out of those confines that most firms are able to lower costs and expand market shares. "Breaking out" means government contracts, favorable military intervention, favorable legal and labor conditions, expanded infrastructure for the distribution of goods, and more.

"Free market" firms are successful when they break free of the confines of market competition, and develop stable market shares and resource and labor inputs.

Moved to theory too.

[JPSartre12]

There is no such thing as a free market for it is a contradiction in terms ... A free market can't exist because markets require coercion to exist and it is for this reason most market thinkers accept government and dislike anarchism.

Yes, but there is also more to it than this. Markets naturally trend towards monopolization; the idea of "perfect competition" in completely theoretical and impossible.

[Tim Cornelis]

Wrong. Free markets refers to the principle of freedom of contract. The fact that contracts have to be enforced does not negate the notion of free markets. Historically, freedom of contract and free association under capitalism has never existed of course.

[Nevsky]

And even more obvious is the contradiction between "free markets" and "democracy", as the liberals use the term. Democracy means actual participation of all people but free marketism is an abstract, idealist system which works through mechanisms which lie outside of the majority's control. The average joe who sells his labour to the markets has zero influence on the whole capitalist production process. Thus, liberal-capitalism is a non-democratic system.

[tuwix]

Even the free market's indicate that it can't exist. Let's review some of them.


A*free market*is a market structure in which the distribution and costs of goods and services, along with the structure and hierarchy between capital and consumer goods, are coordinated by*supply and demand*unhindered by external regulation or control by government or monopolies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market

There is always external regulation unless there is no state which means there is no private property and there is no market at all. And if there is always external regulation, free market can't exist because it isn't in conditions defined by its definition.

Next one:



A completely free market is an idealized form of a market economy where buyers and sellers are allowed to transact freely (i.e. buy/sell/trade) based on a mutual agreement on price without state intervention in the form of taxes, subsidies or regulation.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/freemarket.asp

But of there is no state, there is no market.

Next one:


an*economic system*in*which*prices*and*wages*are*determined*by *unrestricted*competition*between businesses,*without*government*regulation*or*fear* of*monopolies.


http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/free+market

There a weather can destroy free market. :P If rain restricts unrestricted competition because doesn't allow to sell and buy outside buildings, there is no free market too. Certainly, there will always be government control.


Where*buyers*and*sellers*can make the*deals*they wish to make without any interference, except by the*forces*of*demand and supply.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/free-market.html

There rain kill a free market too. :P

[Prof. Oblivion]

What is the point of this thread? Everybody but the most extreme libertarians recognize that a truly laissez-faire market can't exist in reality.

[tuwix]

I don't think so. There are many idiots who reffer to free market and even don't know that it can't exist. And they don't have to be Ron Paul's fools. Many men adn women loving capitalism reffer to free market.

[∞]

Free enterprise judges the means of capital as the ultimate expression of "freedom".

Market sway determined by people should be the ultimate freedom.

Socialism. Democratically owned m.o.p. People influence supply and demand and manage finances as equally as well.

Its simple. Point out inconsistencies and applications all you want if you are in favor of capitalism, but don't give me this BS that socialism interrupts human liberty.

[SmirkerOfTheWorld]

I think this kind of talking is going to shock and outrage many people on this revolutionary left-wing online forum...

[TheWannabeAnarchist]

Yep, the free market is an oxymoron. Laissez-faire is a system of greed and oppression, not freedom. Nuff said.