Re:Google’s Rivals Gear Up to Make Antitrust Case
by joshuamorton on Monday June 24, 2019 @07:34PM
(#20269639)
To add, Adam Smith's original postulation of a free market was an explicitly regulated market (for example to prevent monopoly influence).
There are all sorts of ways we aren't in that world (for example a free market requires a fully informed set of buyers, which practically speaking never exists).
Re:Google’s Rivals Gear Up to Make Antitrust Case
by ucaetano on Monday June 24, 2019 @11:37PM
(#20270980)
Exactly! Free market != laissez faire.
But a market where exorbitant costs of regulation drive up the minimum efficient scale to the point that no new entrants are possible is also not a free market.
Re:Google’s Rivals Gear Up to Make Antitrust Case
by tehjoker on Saturday June 29, 2019 @08:54PM
(#20315740)
I don't think the dictionary definition is useful here. A market can be "free" while granting inordinate decision making power over the population to a few people - the opposite of a democracy. The prices can be here or there, but the relationship between people is what matters. Who has power and who decides how to use it?
A free market is one where prices are set based on supply and demand without restrictions on competition due to monopolistic powers, market reserve regulations, etc.
There are always limits to competition, some due to scale, some due to market size, some due to availability of resources. None of those prevent a market from being free.
Even antitrust regulation doesn't necessarily prevent a market from being free.