RE: Would free markets solve all our problems?

[nikolai]

Some of these are easier than other:

1. I have no idea how a free market could control nuclear materials to the same extent the law has
2. Why is this bad? If someone chooses to pay for the cleaned water instead of cleaning it themselves... it's probably more expensive for them to clean it themselves!
3. Animal welfare and ecological welfare is tough. Working conditions are a simple matter of improving coordination mechanisms for collective bargaining.
4. Does being a human entitle you to enslave the brightest minds in the world and force them to be educators instead of researchers? It's a spectrum. I bet in a different thread you'd argue expensive educations are not necessary because the internet has infinite learning resources.
5. The basic argument against minimum wage is that it discriminates against unskilled labor. If you're going to introduce deadweight loss to be able to support the least productive, use universal basic income instead - more straightforward and we don't force people to work just so they "earn" money they didn't actually earn.
6. Just to be clear, you're suggesting that either a) the food should be thrown away, or b) that it should be sold at an artificially high price? One interest group sees their income source destroyed, another sees cheaper fish to feed their family.

Comments

[pharesim]

Thanks so far.

1. I was referring to perfectly clean drinking water. There are cases where Nestle did that in Africa. Of course governments are involved, as they got a concession for that. I think the question would more generally be: what happens to resources noone claimed yet?
2. & 5. bargaining does only work in skilled positions. For unqualified jobs there will always be someone doing it for less. Universal basic income is a great idea imo, but seemed incompatible with free markets to me so far. Maybe I am wrong there, and a free market society could still agree on some form of redistribution.
3. No, educators need to like their job and get paid of course. But I think society has to take care of that, because it profits as a whole. The internet can provide a lot of knowledge, but no formal education. While you can of course be lucky and climb up the social ladder without, most good paying jobs still require it.
4. The governments there should put customs on foreign products that compete with their local production. And it should not be ok to fish their coasts empty, only because they did not manage to do so themselves.
   The west has so much power, economical and technological, and there is no chance for developing countries to get on their own feet when they have to compete with our unsustainable mass production.