In an ideal world, free markets would be terrific. People would have manners in respecting acquisition, transfer, and rectification of property rights. They wouldn't duress each other behind the excuses of work ethic or pragmatism or rugged individualism to expect people to prove themselves in advance of being treated with respect. Instead, individuals would be respected based on who's on the inside that counts, and they would be allowed to conduct transactions at their will. Likewise, regardless of the particular style of transaction, all transactions would be acknowledged for the type of behavior they are. We would not live in a society where rights would only be upheld if those exercising them did so according to the style their peers approve of.
We do not live in an ideal world though.
We live in a practical world.
In a practical world, people violate each other's rights on purpose because they don't like each other. This starts in our childhood when some parents are supportive, and others are oppressive. Some children in school have their talents supported, and others have their talents oppressed. Some people when entering the labor and product markets are socially networked while others are not. Those children who are judged as impractical are disciplined to go along with the program - the foundation of cultural communism. They are told their freedom of assembly, rights to privacy, due process, meeting of the minds, offer and acceptance, and consent are irrelevant.
This leads to an inherent inequality which makes the free market unfair. It leads to a society where people are only entitled to acquire, transfer, and rectify property rights if they're approved of in the opinion of their peers. Those who conduct weird, strange, and odd transactions are dismissed as undeserving of respect, and if criminals choose to violate their transactions, they may do so without consequences for their actions. Whether this in terms of training, recruitment, or performance of labor; or buying, selling, or contracting property; we live in a society where people's rights to conduct transactions depend on whether or not their peers judge them to be practical.
In effect, our society is culturally communist. Free markets cannot work in a culturally communist society. In order for free markets to succeed, pragmatism must be dismissed such that people do not judge each other's transactions as deserving respect in the opinion of their lifestyle.
If the cultural side of the equation is not addressed, the fiscal side of the equation cannot be addressed. Yes, free markets depend on customs, tradition, and heritage to make sure they're conducted appropriately such as with signatures, currency, and operating standards, but when the conservation of these customs transcends to a practical lifestyle that must be adhered to, we are no longer conserving a free market. Instead, we are communing a free market that exists in name only. In essence, we might as well be telling transactors that they're subject to the bully on the playground who says to the nerd, "Do my homework or I'll beat you up and take your lunch money."
Besides, that's what communism is anyway - from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. A ruggedly individualist and practical interpretation of the free market does not tolerate creative thinkers or problem solvers having the freedom to conduct transactions as they see fit. Instead, they're expected to conform to the powerful, popular, and politically correct. They are expected to conform to a dictatorship of the proletariat through dialectically material relations of production. Creative thinkers and problem solvers are expected to go along with those who have previously proved themselves concretely instead of being entitled to think abstractly in peace and produce at their own rhythm.
We do not live in an ideal world though.
We live in a practical world.
In a practical world, people violate each other's rights on purpose because they don't like each other. This starts in our childhood when some parents are supportive, and others are oppressive. Some children in school have their talents supported, and others have their talents oppressed. Some people when entering the labor and product markets are socially networked while others are not. Those children who are judged as impractical are disciplined to go along with the program - the foundation of cultural communism. They are told their freedom of assembly, rights to privacy, due process, meeting of the minds, offer and acceptance, and consent are irrelevant.
This leads to an inherent inequality which makes the free market unfair. It leads to a society where people are only entitled to acquire, transfer, and rectify property rights if they're approved of in the opinion of their peers. Those who conduct weird, strange, and odd transactions are dismissed as undeserving of respect, and if criminals choose to violate their transactions, they may do so without consequences for their actions. Whether this in terms of training, recruitment, or performance of labor; or buying, selling, or contracting property; we live in a society where people's rights to conduct transactions depend on whether or not their peers judge them to be practical.
In effect, our society is culturally communist. Free markets cannot work in a culturally communist society. In order for free markets to succeed, pragmatism must be dismissed such that people do not judge each other's transactions as deserving respect in the opinion of their lifestyle.
If the cultural side of the equation is not addressed, the fiscal side of the equation cannot be addressed. Yes, free markets depend on customs, tradition, and heritage to make sure they're conducted appropriately such as with signatures, currency, and operating standards, but when the conservation of these customs transcends to a practical lifestyle that must be adhered to, we are no longer conserving a free market. Instead, we are communing a free market that exists in name only. In essence, we might as well be telling transactors that they're subject to the bully on the playground who says to the nerd, "Do my homework or I'll beat you up and take your lunch money."
Besides, that's what communism is anyway - from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. A ruggedly individualist and practical interpretation of the free market does not tolerate creative thinkers or problem solvers having the freedom to conduct transactions as they see fit. Instead, they're expected to conform to the powerful, popular, and politically correct. They are expected to conform to a dictatorship of the proletariat through dialectically material relations of production. Creative thinkers and problem solvers are expected to go along with those who have previously proved themselves concretely instead of being entitled to think abstractly in peace and produce at their own rhythm.
