Comment by tkahn6

16 years ago

The justification must come from the free market, if free market is to be the moral system.

How can there exist a free market without the guarantee of the protection of private property? Without that you have anarchy (whoever is physically strongest wins).

I've never heard of someone invoking the idea of a "free market" without implying that the agents of the market are protected from physical harm.

This is by no means 'official' but from the first sentence of the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market:

"A free market is a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to outlaw and prosecute force or fraud."

When people say "free market" this is what they imply.

What, in a free market moral system, prevents slavery?

The government.

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tkahn6

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CWuestefeld  16 years ago

How can there exist a free market without the guarantee of the protection of private property? Without that you have anarchy

See "anarcho-capitalism": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism

In an anarcho-capitalist society, law enforcement, courts, and all other security services would be provided by voluntarily-funded competitors such as private defense agencies rather than through taxation, and money would be privately and competitively provided in an open market.

You continue...

> > What, in a free market moral system, prevents slavery?

> The government.

No. Slavery is prevented because the income generated by those would-be slaves is less than the income generated when those people fill the role of "consumer".

Also, if there are non-consensual exchanges, then by definition it is not a free market, but that simply avoids the question...

  • Psyonic  16 years ago

    How do you figure that prevents slavery? It doesn't prevent slavery right now... buying a russian sex slave and making her work 12 hour days in a club seems to generate a lot more income than she would as a "consumer".