guarana wrote:
The presentation was really good. It was basicly about how a free market without government rules and regulations generally self regulate and do a better job than government regulations could ever do.
Dick Unger wrote:
Conservative speakers generally do a good job on free market theory and I'm glad Dr. Stossel says that.
Well, Stossel is not a conservative. He's a libertarian. He made a point of telling us that only in the media and on the Upper West Side would HE be considered a conservative.
He is opposed to the Iraq war and he's pro-gay rights, for example.
Oh, and as far as I can tell, he doesn't have even an honorary doctorate. He does have a BA from Princeton.
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What I'm wondering is:
1 Did he go on to say that such a free market without government rules has never existed in the world?
To be perfectly accurate, he said "less" government, not no government. "I'm not an anarchist," he said at one point.
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2 How are contracts enforced in such a free market without government rules?
See above
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3 What do they do when a monopoly occurs?
In a true free market system, a monopoly is a sign of "nobody does it better." If someone does it better, or cheaper, or faster, or in any way more desirably, they effectively compete, and there is no longer a monopoly.
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4 How about natural monopolies like roads, water sources, power lines, radio frequencies, etc regulated in a free ecomony?
I have no idea what Stossel thinks about this.
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Does Dr. Stossel have a precise definition of the word "market"?
I believe that he said something close to this: The market is the collective expression of the value that individuals place on goods and services.
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I'm not trying to pick any arguements, but conservative speakers often present a lala land, as do many liberals when they talk about violence.
I'm opposed to governemnt rules and I'm opposed to violence. So if I overthrow the government and melt down all my guns the experts tell me things should be just about perfect.
Reductio ad absurdum. Are you sure you're not trying to pick an argument?