The Free Market Isn't "Dead"

Chris, the so-called free-market has taken a hit, deserved or not.  Within the present lexicon, most citizens generally understand the "free market" as the present capitalist system as practiced in the U.S. -- probably the closest thing to a libertarian society on the planet.    Now before we libertarians take issue with the notion of "U.S. is free market," we must be prepared to discuss the level of regulation a true "free-marketer" desires.  

When pure leftists are faced with the fall of the Soviet Union, the fascism of China, the authoritarian rule of Cuba, they are quick to say, "That is unfair because those were not 'true' examples of communism.  They were perversions of the ideal."

Now, never mind that the communist approach is, pragmatically, a fairy tale, a fantasy, a denial of our human need for individuality and ultimately results in a fascist state.  The followers of Marx reiterate and reiterate and reiterate that leftist ideals have not been really tested in the manner that they recommend.

Most critics of the present financial debacle will point to deregulation (even though it is half-baked deregulation) and will say, "The free market failed."  Libertarians will respond with, "But this was not a 'true free market.' This was a perversion of the ideal."

Yeah, the same complaint as the Marxists, and that is why libertarians are often considered fringe nutcases.  Sadly.

Libertarians must be prepared to identify how much regulation is necessary. Even anarcho-capitlists understand that a Darwinian model is flawed since protection of property must be guaranteed; otherwise, we end up with tribal warfare.   Limiting our discussion to the libertarian guidelines of a court system, upholding contracts, guaranteeing right of transit via a roadway, the recognition of currency within the contractual paradigm, then we too are faced with a certain amount of regulation.  Like it or not, we need real-world examples.

So the discussion becomes, "How much" regulation?   If the "how much" metric cannot be defined or framed, then libertarians shall forever stay in the "idealistic kook" category, not living in the real world -- similar to Marxists who repeat, "That old-style Soviet communism was not what we meant!"  just as libertarians will be faced with 1990's style banking deregulation and cry, "That is not what we meant!"

Even libertarians, who are not anarchists, espouse some regulation.  

Austrians will recognize the so-called libertarian approach of Reagan was also perversion of the free-market.   But the Reagan years are usually considered the 'test" of conservative principles.  

So how do we define a free-market when not one libertarian can cite a workable, pure (and I mean, very pure) example of it in the country's last 200 years?

Regards,

F.

Your quite the fiscal luddite or just trolling for negative attention  The irony of these delusions is that the DJIA dropped 2000 points since you posted.

1. The "Ponzi Pyramid of Debt Death/Bretton Woods II" that was the world's financial system collapsed five weeks ago today. Tens of trillions of electronic fiat were evaporated from the servers and spreadsheets housing them.

2. Literally every single large financial instution failed, simultaneously. Worldwide.

3. The world's governments and central banks have been performing ever-greater and more desperate maneuvers to revive the now-decaying corpse, pumping in seven trillion fiat.

4. So far, their efforts have shown little success as the spillover effects on the credit and equity markets can no longer be hidden.

A full blown, up-in-your-face credit collapse and stock market colllapse has ensued. Again, worldwide.

5. Coming next: "Great Depression II Meets Mad Max".

6. Therefore, we're screwed and it's dieing and soon to be dead.

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