In a strictly economic sense the free market is about
competition and maximum choice. It is important to understand that a market cannot
fail. The markets job is simply to distribute production, the market is the
interaction between human beings when they buy and sell goods and services. Markets
just bring buyers and sellers together. If there is one buyer and one seller,
that is still a market as the act of buying and selling took place. The market
can either be free or controlled. As long as there is production the market
will exist, to talk of market failure is to show ignorance of the market and
what it is. One can talk of failure of production and reduced goods and
services available in the market, but the market itself is a neutral concept,
it can never fail, as long as there is exchange of goods and services, the
market has done its job.
A free market concept merely says that anybody can
participate in the buying and selling of goods and services. The free market
says anybody capable can produce goods and provide services. This is opposite
to a market that is under total government control where only the government
can provide goods and services. The free market again is very different from a
situation where the government decides who in their private capacity can
produce goods and bring them to market, this is not free market, once you hear
there are legally only so many banks, so many phone companies, so many
insurance companies, that is not the free market, the government has decided
who can produce and provide services. But remember, a market still exists, be
the market free, partially controlled as in fascism or totally controlled as in
communism. Once you hear of bailouts and subsidies, rest assured that market is
not free, the players, the suppliers of goods and services have already been
decided by the government. A free market says that the suppliers of goods and
services are left to their own devices, if you are inefficient then you lose,
the government will not come and bail you out or give you a subsidy, nobody
gets special treatment.
Sports is an excellent example of the free market, there
are set rules and the individual or team plays. The authorities do not handicap
one team or individual in favor of another, that would be rightly called
cheating. No one capable is refused a shot if they believe they can make it,
one can go to the gym right now and try out their luck in any of the martial
arts competitions, tennis or golf for example, as they win they would move up
the rankings, authorities do not make rules to handicap anybody, the winner is
clear. How does this apply to life outside sports?
When Mike Tyson lost his fortune no government came in
and said Mike you were a great champ here is your money back, people would have
cried foul, not fair, it is his fault, and rightly so. When a banker loses his
money should he not be forced to get another job, he is no good as a banker, he
has no aptitude for it, others have better aptitude, but he is bailed out. All
over the world government protect monopolies, in Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia
the telecommunications sector is protected creating false billionaires who
never worked for their money but relied on the government to protect them from
competition. They owe the government everything right down to the underwear
they wear. Government protects them because they fear those better than them
would do a better job if they are allowed.
The government does not subsidize for example the Dallas
cowboys or any other Football team, nor does British government subsidize
Arsenal or any other soccer team, that would be considered abhorrent and unfair
to the others. These are businesses, private businesses, the same logic and
principles should hold up for other businesses. What makes one private
corporation so special that they can be subsidized by the government and call
themselves talented and others lazy whilst they reside in mansions bought for
by tax payers.
The free market is a simple concept, nothing evil, it guarantees
an individual’s right to be allowed to bring goods and services to market that
other individuals have brought to the market. If they are allowed to bring
certain goods and services to the market, if you have the resources and
business acumen, then you as an individual can do the same?
This brings about the legal aspect of a system of free
markets and liberty. The basic legal requirement for a free market system is
that everybody is equal before the law. How is that evil? If A can do it so can
B. If A can own property, even if A is the government, then B can own property.
No individual, no institution, no organization has greater rights than B. If A
can take certain action with his property so can B because they are equal under
the law, they have the same protection and rights from the law. Equality before
the law is a massive concept.
If A can own property so can B. If A can take a certain
action so can B. If A can have an opinion so can B and if A has right to tell
others his opinion so does B because they are equal under the law, Equality
before the law guarantees free speech. If A can believe in a supernatural being of
his choosing so can B believe in a supernatural being of his choosing or none.
If A can own arms, equality before the law must guarantee that B can also take
the same action. How then is this concept evil, because you cannot have free
markets without equality before the law, how then is an idea that says you are
free to take action you desire to make a living evil. Anybody who says this
evil is the one who is evil as they want to control people and give certain
people advantages over others, they want to create serfs, they are the absolute
evil, they are the selfish who say their self interests are best served when
most of society is handicapped and they have clicks that are more equal before
the law than everybody else.
The market is about human interaction. For a seller there
must be a buyer, there must be interaction. To provide a service you must be
providing that service for another human being. You get to choose the human
being you want the service from, you want the goods from. There can be no
market for anything without human interaction, it does not make sense.
The free market ensures maturity. A mature mind accepts
change, that there is a possibility somebody else can do it better. This is a
cultural attitude. A free market is for human beings, by bringing your goods or
services to the market you accept you are dealing with other human beings. By
accepting that you are dealing with human beings and that money is just that
money, a tool of exchange, but to serve its purpose it must have the ability to
store value, it is just money, it is human action that gives that money value,
not faith, goods and services. When money accepts money is just money, they
accept goods and services can come from anybody no matter the religion, the
culture, the race, the sex, money will purchase the good or service the owner
wants, and will allow anybody else to purchase their good or service.
The free market ensures a culture of positive human
action, as all are equal human beings will see that they do not have to join
fraternities, political parties, or donate to political parties to get
legislation that is beneficial to them, because they can take any action that
any other member or members of society can take. Those who advocate any other
system advocate inequality before the law, by this they are spreading the
culture that some humans are superior to other humans, and their pseudo
scientists will keep claiming they have found the intelligence gene in their
people and therefore must rule everybody else and laws must be bent for them to
get bailouts. Well, if they are so intelligent why do they fear a free market,
a culture that accepts all are human beings, a culture that will accept knowledge
from any human being, if it is correct it is correct. Only a free market
mentality can do that, allow humans to accept other humans.
The free market promotes the idea that one must look
after their own self interests, without harming anybody else. Anything less
than a free market promotes a culture of selfishness, everything for me,
subsidies for me, bailouts for me, government contracts for me, the rest
deserve nothing, I don’t even have to be good, I just need the connection who
will bend laws towards my favor, that is selfishness. They will use my services
or else, and I shall get rich because I have made donations to the right
people. Who cares if others are more talented than me. But the media I
advertise in will say I am talented or else. The media I advertise in will only show scientists of my people as great, a truly selfish, fearful, thieving, con artist of a human.Yes to them the Free market, equality before the law is their greatest threat.
Accepting all are human beings means people will interact
freely with each other not stratified by race, religion, sex, or wealth, but
what you have to offer. Free market promotes a superior culture, how can
accepting we are all human beings be evil? The most confusing thing is when a
descendant of slaves or descendant of apartheid, colonialism calls the free market evil, what a fool, he/
she thinks equality before the law is evil. Well back to slavery the opposite
of free markets and equality before the law.
Bhekuzulu Khumalo
Twitter @bhekukhumalo
If you like what you read, be generous if you can it will be appreciated
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