Marketism
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About
Free-marketism is a belief in the general superiority of solutions based on free-as-in-unregulated market principles. It is usually accompanied by a belief in strong property rights, with enforcement of such rights being one of the few (if any) legitimate functions of government.
A society based on free-marketist principles would be a form of minarchy, but there are no known examples of any such society that is both highly technological and successful at either creating significant wealth or maintaining human rights.
Usage
- Free-marketism is belief in a system of free/unregulated markets.
- Adherents of this ideology are referred to as free marketeers or free marketarians. They are also often (especially in the United States) libertarians, though that ideology is generally a superset of free-marketism.
Claims
Claims frequently made by free marketeers include:
- Economic inequality is, has always been, and will always be with us; attempts to fight poverty have never worked.
- This is fair because people are not equal in their efforts and, therefore, people will not be equal in their rewards.
- The fact that most people now have cell phones proves that the free market works to provide equality.
- This is often claimed by the same people who will freely admit we don't have a free market right now.
- Only government regulation can cause monopolies.
- More generally, excessive private power only exists because it is able to exploit excessive government power.
- Implication: all excessive power is created by government.
- More generally, excessive private power only exists because it is able to exploit excessive government power.
- It is the government's fault that its regulatory power is abused [W] by powerful interests. (If that power didn't exist, then it couldn't be abused.)