• barsoap@lemm.ee
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    10 days ago

    To get closer to the free market there would have to be a duty to disclose any- and everything that’s now a trade secret, no matter how easily kept. To not just get closer but actually get there we all would need to be telepathic. As said, perfect information is a bitch of a concept.

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      10 days ago

      Being free to innovate and keep your own ideas to yourself sounds like it should be part of the free market though.

      Forcing people to disclose their (mental) secrets seems bizarre.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        10 days ago

        I’m not arguing for any policies, just explaining what would be necessary to make the theoretical model of the free market a reality in actual reality: It assumes perfect information and perfectly rational actors, it’s a tall order.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            9 days ago

            Adam Smith’s. He pioneered rational choice models in general. Came up with the whole shebang that 20yold econ 101 students love to ignore in favour of “free market is if I get a fat payout”.

            • lud@lemm.ee
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              9 days ago

              And why should I listen to someone that defines a word differently than everyone else?

              • barsoap@lemm.ee
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                9 days ago

                Adam Smith came up with it. It’s also how actual economists use it. Don’t confuse that with how business majors, politicians, and generally peddlers of institutionalised market failure use it.

                • lud@lemm.ee
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                  9 days ago

                  Can you point to a few examples of economists using it? Obviously I won’t count Lemmy users.

                  • barsoap@lemm.ee
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                    9 days ago

                    In the hardcore contemporary literature you mostly see more precise language such as perfect competition, (theoretical) situations which are pareto-optimal, which is built on Adam’s rational choice models. The maths became more solid, the idea didn’t change. They didn’t have game theory back then.

                    And FFS read The Wealth of Nations and see what he thought of monopolists he’d consider our billionaires to be no different than the kings of old. The father of capitalism was out for universal wealth and happiness, not personal enrichment.