The Free Market

You misunderstand the meaning of "free market."

[tylerdurden]

[ QUOTE ]
You misunderstand the meaning of "free market."

[/ QUOTE ]

Enlighten us, please.

[sammysusar]

yeah well communism accomplished this alot better.

the free market system is flawed but it is still the best system. nothing in life is perfect. governemnt could do a few things such as taxing gasoline and other pollutants to more to compensate for stuff like this. other than that people our better off without any governemnt involvement.

[Il_Mostro]

pvn has a somewhat unorthodox view of the free market. Such as beliving that it was the free market that got us fire and the wheel.

[tylerdurden]

[ QUOTE ]
pvn has a somewhat unorthodox view of the free market. Such as beliving that it was the free market that got us fire and the wheel.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm still waiting for someone to disprove this assertion. It shouldn't be hard, just tell me which government market intervention led to their creation.

[Il_Mostro]

There was no government involved, ovbiously. But I don't think your underlying premise that the only two possible systems are "govenment market intervention" and the free market is correct. In what way do you mean the free market was responsible for inventing fire?

[tylerdurden]

[ QUOTE ]
There was no government involved, ovbiously. But I don't think your underlying premise that the only two possible systems are "govenment market intervention" and the free market is correct. In what way do you mean the free market was responsible for inventing fire?

[/ QUOTE ]

How is the premise incorrect? There's a third option other than "government intervention" and "the lack of government intervention"? What is it?

The free market is not a force that induces things. It's the absence of intervention, intervention which prevents things.

[Il_Mostro]

And my original point stands. This is an unorthodox view of what the free market is. The idea of a free market among cave men a few 10s of thousands of years ago is not the usual meaning of the word.

[tylerdurden]

[ QUOTE ]
And my original point stands. This is an unorthodox view of what the free market is. The idea of a free market among cave men a few 10s of thousands of years ago is not the usual meaning of the word.

[/ QUOTE ]

What is the free market, then? You seem to imply that there has to be something imposed in order to create a free market. I simply state that "the market" exists whenever there are people that wish to interact - whether those interactions are coercively interfered with or not determines if the market is free or not.

[ QUOTE ]
pvn has a somewhat unorthodox view of the free market.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's sad (and frightening, frankly) that viewing a free market as the voluntary exchange between individuals without outside interference has become so unorthodox.