[Vision2020] The illusory free market (was: Unstable, Doomed, Missed Points)

[Bruce and Jean Livingston]

Actually, not all regulations are antithetical to the notion of a free 
market.  Intellectual property law, for example, regulates private property 
rights that the free market would recognize.  As I understand it, those who 
sell knock-offs and pirated material could be regulated and controlled 
without affecting free market theory, if only the States would enforce those 
laws.  Software pirates translate to "thieves," and the free market is 
supposed to allow the policing of thieves, whether they be shoplifters or 
software pirates.

Laws are not necessarily antithetical to a "free market."

Anti-trust law is an area where some libertarians might argue about whether 
or not anti-trust laws are good for a free market or not.  You will note 
that the Bush administration has relaxed the enforcement of antitrust laws, 
for example, in the belief that the AT laws were preventing an efficient 
free market.  I think I have seen some academics advocate for eliminating 
anti-trust regulations altogether, but I believe that is a minority 
position, even in the libertarian community.  I imagine Jeff can address 
this far better than I, as I don't profess to be an expert in the area.

Bruce Livingston

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joan Opyr" <joanopyr at moscow.com>
To: "John D" <johnd550 at yahoo.com>
Cc: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 3:19 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] The illusory free market (was: Unstable, Doomed,Missed 
Points)


> On 8 Mar 2006, at 13:10, John D wrote in response to Melynda:
>
>>  > I can't have every single possible choice. Why shouldn't we, as a 
>> community,
>>  > try to exercise responsibly the functionally limited choices we have?
>>
>>  Because history has not been kind to experimental alternatives to the 
>> free market.
>
> Really?  History seems to have been fairly kind to Sweden, Denmark, 
> Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, most of the European Union, in fact --  
> and all are what you might call socialist nanny states. Even Germany's 
> economy seems to be in recovery (and that with full-strength unions, too.) 
> Would you or Jeff Harkins mind demonstrating for me where on earth there 
> is a completely free and unfettered market?  Going once?  Going twice? 
> China and India are certainly growing their economies by leaps and bounds, 
> but their markets are far from unbound.  Some regulation is will always be 
> necessary or desirable, else, we see the formation of market-destroying 
> monopolies and, as Andreas Schou has aptly and repeatedly explained, 
> monopsonies.
>
> And what of international trade law?  What will we do about Chinese and 
> Indian software/music/dvd piracy?  Should we withdraw our complaints from 
> the ITO and allow that to continue at its current rampant rate?  I can't 
> imagine Jeff freely surrendering copyright to any papers or books he's 
> written; how free market would Jeff be if some cheap press in China 
> decided to bootleg one of his academic treatises, republish it in Hong 
> Kong, and sell it back to the U of I Library at less than a third of its 
> current US university press price?  No royalties paid, of course; none at 
> all.
>
> Joan Opyr
> Northern Idaho Editor
> New West Magazine
> www.newwest.net
> www.joanopyr.com
>
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