Question:
Free Marketers, Explain why you support such a system?
anonymous
2009-02-27 19:39:59 UTC
Please read the question in its entirety. I have put this question over at Politics & Government -- Other -- Politics & Government. Not one of them can answer it, except in the most partisan, I heard it on the radio, all without answering one of the questions I have put forth. I got a sneaking hunch that most of you who believe in such a system don't know much more then what your handlers have told you, I.E. talk radio and partisan web sites.

When I say free market, that means a capitalistic system with no controls other then those done through competition and self regulation.

How will a Free Market system protect Joe Six Pack?

And not result in greed and power taking over?

And not allow Bill Gates to out maneuver and gobble up all the other operations systems and create a monopoly? Or hundreds of such scenario's to take place?

And not repeat the lessons of history that has found such an economic system eventually results in a huge poor class, a very small or no middle class and a few ultra rich? Which results in revolutions. Which is why most all governments have economic controls in place. Unless they are a third world banana republic.

I don't want to hear about some kind of convoluted socialism/communism Obama BS, or a personal story of how economic controls have hindered or helped you.........I want you to explain why you believe a free market system is the best of all worlds and will be the best thing for this country.
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Thirteen answers:
Tim M
2009-02-27 20:34:26 UTC
I need to point out that the free market system requires the government as a backstop for when the system goes sideways... or "pear-shaped" as the British say. Hence there is regulation but it should be as minimal as possible.
Roadkill
2009-02-27 22:20:50 UTC
In a free market resources are diverted to their most valued uses. No system has ever been devised to more efficiently distribute goods and services. Just think about a grocery store, they don't know when you are coming to the store or what you are going to buy yet because of markets most of the time they have exactly what you want. There is no department of ripe bananas to make sure the store has them.



If you don't have a free market then a government bureaucrat gets to decide what you can have and when you can have it. Just run an experiment, call in an order to a pizza delivery and call 911, see who gets there first the pizza or the police.



There are no monopolies that exist except those created by government, like your local phone company or utility company.



The market won't protect Joe Sixpack because the free market is based on service to your fellow man. You can only make a profit or keep your job if you serve your fellow man by providing a service or goods someone for which someone is freely willing to pay.



In a free market the government can't set wages or prices. You can only charge what someone is willing to pay. The buyer not the seller sets the price.



Since the free market is based on service to your fellow man. What is the government controlled system based on? I'd say service to the government instead of to your fellow man.
Scribepalladin
2009-02-27 22:52:53 UTC
Free market economics relies upon an economic model that is rational and driven by common sense. It is comforting to think that an entrepreneur who offers the best product most efficiently will be always rewarded by the marketplace.



This theory probably works well enough in a self-contained economy, where everyone knows one another In such an environment, the only regulation that free-marketers accept -- an individuals moral compass might actually constrain bad behavior, such as paying slave wages, creating a monopoly or outright criminal activity.



in practice, however, top executives have never seemed to be constrained by conscience alone. Banking failures can be attributed lack of caution fueled by avarice.



And the free market theory really makes no provision for the interdependence of a global economy. Ongoing searches for ever-lower wages to boost profits result in nations being filled with well-educated underemployed people who now cannot afford the products that once were made in local factories.
anonymous
2009-02-27 20:32:38 UTC
well see what you basing this off of is very skewed. but to tell you why its the best is because is the lesser of all the evils. It allows a person to make what they want of themselves. Now yes it does require hard work to find success. Now to the free market. It will not protect anyone you are correct about that, but that's why it is a free market. Anything goes survival of the fittest. I would much rather have the ability to make something of myself rather than be at the will of the government as it is in more of a command economy. Also your assumption that free markets result in revolution is very off base. there have been many dictatorships and monarchs that have been overthrown because of their oppressive nature. I do believe in supply and demand and that demand creates supply.



In saying all of this I will add that i am more for a mixed economy with free market leaning. People deserve to be protected under law from being scammed, but there is a big difference between being scammed and not reading over/researching what you are putting your money towards





your examples of free markets were not all that free. you also forget to mention that many of those govenments were fairly oppressive which too can lead to revolution



the greed and power factor is still there in any other type of economy and government. its just that fewer people have a chance to be greedy and or powerful in more restrictive markets/governments
anonymous
2009-02-27 21:59:00 UTC
You asked me to answer your question.

But the real answer (which you should know because you are so smart)

Is 1 trillion dollars is alot of money

3 trillion even more...

4 trillion more than that...

So I am sure you realize we cannot possibly pay off this debt

There is not enough money in this country

So your answer is so simple that an elementary student can even figure this out, we cannot afford to spend what we don't have.

A socialized government is expensive. And remember we din't have any of these social programs until the great depression and America was somehow born on the free capitalist market system.
IceT
2009-02-27 20:37:32 UTC
I am for a freemarket capitalist system but not the one you are talking about because the one you are talking about would actually cause many of the things you say.



I am for a freemarket capitalist system where there are some common sense regulations and controls but other than that the government should stay out of the economy.



Please tell what lessons of history shows this economic system fails. Because I cannot think of one. I can think of lots of examples in history where socialist and communist economies have failed! In what country did this lession of freemarket capitalism occur?
Stop Spending Our Money
2009-02-27 20:28:29 UTC
The free market society is not set out to "protect" anyone so your question is slanted. The way a free market works is supply and demand. People a group of people decide what they need and at what price they will pay. So if you are looking for protectionism, it is impossible and goes against a protection society. That would be the demand or supply shifts that intervene with a free market society. A free market controls itself, the question is loaded, nice try though. Protectionism is more of a socialist agenda.
Marc H
2009-02-27 21:02:50 UTC
If government were to maintain their proper role, which is protection of private property rights (for ALL individuals, not just corporations and the state, including the right to not have your neighbor pollute your land, water or air), enforcement of voluntary contracts, and defense from foreign aggression (NOT empire building), a free market system is the only just system. If by greed, you mean I want the best for myself and my family, then so be it.

That being said, I leave it for a much greater writer than I:



"The modern socialist factions ceaselessly oppose free association in present-day society. They do not realize that a free society is a true association much superior to any of those that they concoct out of their fertile imaginations.



Let us elucidate this point with an example:



For a man, when he gets up in the morning, to be able to put on a suit of clothes, a piece of land has had to be enclosed, fertilized, drained, cultivated, planted with a certain kind of vegetation; flocks of sheep have had to feed on it; they have had to give their wool; this wool has had to be spun, woven, dyed, and converted into cloth; this cloth has had to be cut, sewn, and fashioned into a garment. And this series of operations implies a host of others; for it presupposes the use of farming implements, of sheepfolds, of factories, of coal, of machines, of carriages, etc.



If society were not a very real association, anyone who wanted a suit of clothes would be reduced to working in isolation, that is, to performing himself the innumerable operations in this series, from the first blow of the pickaxe that initiates it right down to the last thrust of the needle that terminates it.



But thanks to that readiness to associate which is the distinctive characteristic of our species, these operations have been distributed among a multitude of workers, and they keep subdividing themselves more and more for the common good to the point where, as consumption increases, a single specialized operation can support a new industry. Then comes the distribution of the proceeds, according to the portion of value each one has contributed to the total work. If this is not association, I should like to know what is.



Note that, since not one of the workers has produced the smallest particle of raw material from nothing, they are confined to rendering each other mutual services, to aiding each other for a common end; and that all can be considered, each group in relation to the others, as middlemen. If, for example, in the course of the operation, transportation becomes important enough to employ one person; spinning, a second; weaving, a third; why should the first one be considered more of a parasite than the others? Is there no need for transportation? Does not someone devote time and trouble to the task? Does he not spare his associates this time and trouble? Are they doing more than he, or just something different? Are they not all equally subject, in regard to their pay, that is, their share of the proceeds, to the law that restricts it to the price agreed upon after bargaining? Do not this division of labor and these arrangements, decided upon in full liberty, serve the common good? Do we, then, need a socialist, under the pretext of planning, to come and despotically destroy our voluntary arrangements, put an end to the division of labor, substitute isolated efforts for co-operative efforts, and reverse the progress of civilization?"

-Frederic Bastiat
anonymous
2009-02-27 20:36:18 UTC
Obama sucks is the real issue. He wants to rob the working and give to the irresponsible. None of his policies will work and everything he does will turn the banks over to the government. And of course, we know how incompetent, and disorganized the Government is right now. They spend billions to save a few pennies.



Impeach Obama! He has proven his incompetence and is nothing but a self absorbed empty suit and liar.



Edit: I did, that's because Obama still sucks. He's punishing businesses for being in business and hiring people.
Michael D
2009-02-27 20:26:01 UTC
you need a history lesson very badly. the free market system is exactly why we are what we are today. what i really want from you is an example of where socialism worked. any time since the dawn of time. just one example...
Watchful Occupier
2009-02-27 20:19:54 UTC
Try Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. I'm not going to waste my time telling you any thing because you will just ignore it.
anonymous
2009-02-27 20:18:31 UTC
Don't hold your breath waiting for a reasoned argument on this one.



If they CAN'T use the Rush/Hannity playbook they have nothing of consequence to offer.
anonymous
2009-02-27 21:10:30 UTC
yes


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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