NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Free market economics

In economics and politics, a free market is a controversial concept of an idealised economic system and political environment wherein exchanges are "free" of coercive measures such as tariffs, excess taxation, regulations, and restrictions —particularly in regard to rectifying differences in labour laws. It espouses the laissez-faire philosophy. In the confines of political economics, the "free market" is simply the conceptual opposite of a command economy, where all goods and services are produced, priced, and distributed under government control. Economics (from the Greek Î¿Î¯ÎºÎ¿Ï‚ [oikos], house, and Î½Î¿Î¼Î¿Ï‚ [nomos], rule, hence household management) is a social science that studies the production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services. ... Politics is a process by which collective decisions are made within groups. ... An economic system is a mechanism which deals with the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in a particular society. ... A tariff is a tax on imported goods. ... In mathematics, a function is a relation, such that each element of a set (the domain) is associated with a unique element of another (possibly the same) set (the codomain, not to be confused with the range). ... This article is in need of attention. ... Laissez-faire is short for laissez faire, laissez passer, a French phrase meaning to let things alone, let them pass. First used by the eighteenth century Physiocrats as an injunction against government interference with trade, it is now used as a synonym for strict free market economics. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... ... A planned economy is an economic system in which economic decisions are made by centralized planners, who determine what sorts of goods and services to produce, and how they are to be priced and allocated. ...

In a free market, purchaser satisfaction alone would determine the success or failure of particular goods and services.In very specific contexts, as in the exchange of a particular pair of commodities, the term "a free market" may refer to the particular market as being free of restrictions.In political rhetoric, the "free market" is a term which asserts that market concepts represent an undesirable compromise with the command economy model. In economics, economic output is divided into goods and services. ... Rhetoric (from Greek ÏÎ®Ï„Ï‰Ï, rhÃªtÃ´r, orator) is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar) in Western culture. ...

Critics of the term refer to the "free market" as an impractical ideal (ie. a "fantasy") or a political meme (ie. rhetorical device) which, disguised as 'freedom' and 'anti-protectionism', serves the purpose of politically attacking legal labor laws and other protections of the public and working classes. ^[uncited] Critics charge that in such an environment aristocratic classes would simply leverage their wealth to impose greater economic risk upon lower classes, while being insulated from such risk by the political and economic advantages that such wealth affords. As the notable political activist Noam Chomsky remarked, "the free market is socialism for the rich —[free] markets for the poor and state protection for the rich."^[1][2] This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A rhetorical device is a technique, sometimes called a resource of language, used by an author or speaker to induce an emotional response. ... Freedom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Protectionism is the economic policy of protecting a nations manufacturing base from the effects of foreign competition (such as including Dumping) by means of high tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and other means of reducing importation. ... Law (from the Old Norse lagu) in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of/for those who do... This article is in need of attention. ... Public is of or pertaining to the people; belonging to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; opposed to private; as, the public treasury, a road or lake. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... Risk is the potential harm that may arise from some present process or from some future event. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. ... Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... Socialism is an ideology of a social and economic system where the means of production are collectively owned and administered by all of society. ... Wealth usually refers to money and property. ... Protectionism is the economic policy of protecting a nations manufacturing base from the effects of foreign competition (such as including Dumping) by means of high tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and other means of reducing importation. ...

Mechanics

In an absolutely free-market economy, all capital, goods, services, and money flow freely --transfers are not forcibly restricted or impeded. Since no national economy in existence fully manifests the ideal of a free market as theorized by economists and ethicists, the term "free market economy" is used for a nation state's economy that approximates the ideal by virtue of having a government that engages in little or no interventionist economic regulation. An economist is an individual who studies economics and writes about economic policy. ... An ethicist is one whose judgement on ethics and ethical codes has come to be trusted by some community, and (importantly) is expressed in some way that makes it possible for others to mimic or approximate that judgement. ... A nation-state is a specific form of state (a political entity), which exists to provide a sovereign territory for a particular nation (a cultural entity), and which derives its legitimacy from that function. ... Economic interventionism is a term used to describe activity undertaken by a central government to affect a countrys economy in an attempt to increase economic growth and/or standards of living. ...

If such a government intervenes in private affairs, it only does so to stop coercion that may take place among market participants. As this protection must be funded, such a government taxes only to the extent necessary to perform this function. This state of affairs is also known as laissez-faire. Laissez-faire is short for laissez faire, laissez passer, a French phrase meaning to let things alone, let them pass. First used by the eighteenth century Physiocrats as an injunction against government interference with trade, it is now used as a synonym for strict free market economics. ...

Trades in a market made with Fiat money cannot be considered to be free ones, as long as the widespread acceptance of fiat money is enhanced by a central authority which mandates or compels the money's acceptance under penalty of law and demands this money in payment of taxes or tribute. Fiat money or fiat currency, is money that is current or legal tender as satisfaction for money debts by government fiat, that is by law. ... FREE (Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment) is a neologism coined by Yu Suzuki to describe his Shenmue game series. ... An example of Money. ... A tax is a compulsory charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (e. ... A tribute (from Latin tribulum, contribution) is wealth one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often case in historical contests, of submission or allegiance. ...

Whether the marketplace should be or is free is also disputed; many assert that government intervention is necessary to remedy market failure that is held be an inevitable result of absolute adherence to free market principles. Market failure is a situation in which markets do not efficiently organize production or allocate goods and services to consumers (for example, a failure to allocate goods in a way some see as socially or morally preferable). ...

Internationally, free markets are advocated by proponents of economic liberalism; in Europe this is usually simply called liberalism. In the United States, support for free market economic structures is a key tenet of U.S. conservatism and libertarianism. Since the 1970s, promotion of a global free-market economy, deregulation and privatization, is often described as neoliberalism. The liberal theory of economics is the theory of economics described by classical liberal authors such as Adam Smith or the French Physiocrats. ... For related and other uses, see Conservatism (disambiguation) Conservatism is any of a number of political philosophies supporting traditional values or an established social order. ... This article is about the classical liberal individualist philosophy that strongly emphasizes private property rights conjoined with civil liberties. ... Deregulation is the process by which governments remove restrictions on business in order to (in theory) encourage the efficient operation of markets. ... Privatization (sometimes privatisation, denationalization, or, especially in India, disinvestment) is the process of transferring property, from public ownership to private ownership and/or transferring the management of a service or activity from the government to the private sector. ... For the school of international relations, see Neoliberalism (international relations). ...

The term free market economy is sometimes used to describe some economies that exist today (such as Hong Kong), but pro-market groups would only accept that description if the government practices laissez-faire policies, rather than state intervention in the economy. An economy that contains significant economic interventionism by government, while still retaining some characteristics found in a free market, is often called a mixed economy. Since the emergence of a distinct economic system in the Soviet Union, the free market is usually contrasted to a command economy and a centrally planned economy. However, early proponents of a market economy in 18th-century Europe contrasted it with the mediaeval, early-modern, and mercantilist economies which preceded it. A mixed economy is an economy that combines capitalism and socialism [1]. Some sources prefer the use of command economy over socialism in defining a mixed economy (see external links below). ... A planned economy is an economic system in which economic decisions are made by centralized planners, who determine what sorts of goods and services to produce, and how they are to be priced and allocated. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800 in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in Western Europe and its first colonies, between the Middle Ages and modern society. ... Mercantilism is the economic theory that a nations prosperity depended upon its supply of gold and silver, that the total volume of trade is unchangeable. ...

For social philosophy, a free market is a system for allocating goods within a society: supply and demand within the market determine who gets what, and what is produced. Social philosophy is the philosophical study of interesting questions about social behavior (typically, of humans). ... The allocation of production and consumption is a key element of any model of economics. ... The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). ...

A free market does not require the existence of competition, however it does require the competition is not being prevented by coercion. Hence, in the lack of coercive barriers it is generally understood that competition flourishes in a free market environment. It often connotates the presence of the profit motive, although neither a profit motive or profit itself necessary for a free market;. All modern free markets are understood to include entrepreneurs, both individuals and businesses. Typically, a modern free market economy would include other features, such as a stock exchange and a financial services sector, but they do not define it. Profit is a positive return made on an investment by an individual or by business operations. ... Entrepreneur is a loanword from the French language that refers to a person who undertakes and operates a new venture, and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Financial services is a term used to refer to the services provided by the finance industry. ...

Origins

Some theories assume that a free market is a natural form of social organization, and that a free market will arise in any society where it is not obstructed. The consensus among economic historians is that the free market economy is a specific historic phenomenon, and that it emerged in late mediaeval and early-modern Europe. Some economic historians see elements of the free market in the economic systems of Classical Antiquity, and in some non-western societies. Economic history is the application of economic theories to historical study. ... It has been suggested that Greco-Roman be merged into this article or section. ...

By the 19th century the market certainly had organized political support, in the form of laissez-faire liberalism. However, it is not clear if the support preceded the emergence of the market, or followed it. Some historians see it as the result of the success of early liberal ideology, combined with the specific interests of the entrepreneur. In Marxist theory, the ideology simply expresses the underlying long-term transition from feudalism to capitalism. Note that the views on this issue - emergence or implementation - do not necessarily correspond to pro-market and anti-market positions. Libertarians would dispute that the market was enforced through government policy, since that has a connotation of repression, and Marxists agree with them, for different reasons. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... Entrepreneur is a loanword from the French language that refers to a person who undertakes and operates a new venture, and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a chanson de geste. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Capitalism Capitalism has been defined in various ways. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ...

Theory

The law of supply and demand predominates in the idealized free market, influencing prices toward an equilibrium that balances the demands for the products against the supplies. At these equilibrium prices, the market distributes the products to the purchasers according to each purchaser's use (or utility) for each product and within the relative limits of each buyer's purchasing power. The necessary components for the functioning of an idealized free market include the complete absence of artificial price pressures from taxes, subsidies, tariffs, or government regulation (other than protection from coercion and theft), and no government-granted monopolies (usually classified as coercive monopoly by free market advocates) like the United States Post Office, Amtrak, arguably patents, etc. The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). ... Look up equilibrium in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In economics, purchasing power refers to the amount of goods and services a given amount of money -- or, more generally, liquid assets -- can buy. ... A tariff is a tax on imported goods. ... In economics, a government-granted monopoly (also called a de jure monopoly) is a form of coercive monopoly in which the government grants a monopoly in a product or service to a private individual or firm, and excludes potential competitors from the market by law, regulation, or other mechanisms of... In economics and business ethics, a coercive monopoly is a form of monopoly where all potential competition is effectively barred from entering the market, such that a firm is able to make pricing and production decisions independent of competitive forces. ... A USPS Truck at Night A U.S. Post Office sign The United States Postal Service (USPS) is the United States government organization responsible for providing postal service in the United States and is generally referred to as the post office. ... Amtrak train in downtown Orlando, Florida Amtrakâ€™s high-speed Acela Express at Penn Station New York, NY Amtrak, is the brand name of the intercity passenger train system created on May 1, 1971 in the United States. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and...

This equilibrating behaviour of free markets makes certain assumptions about their agents, for instance that they act independently. Some models in econophysics have shown that when agents are allowed to interact locally in a free market (ie. their decisions depend not only on utility and purchasing power, but also on their peers' decisions), prices can become unstable and diverge from the equilibrium, often in an abrupt manner. The behaviour of the free market is thus said to be non-linear (a pair of agents bargaining for a purchase will agree on a different price than 100 identical pairs of agents doing the identical purchase). Speculation bubbles and the type of herd behaviour often observed in stock markets are quoted as real life examples of non-equilibrium price trends. Free-market advocates, especially Austrian school followers, often dismiss this endogenous theory, and blame external influences, such as weather, commodity prices, technological developments, and government meddling on non-equilibrium prices. Econophysics is an interdisciplinary research field, applying theories and methods originally developed by physicists in order to solve problems in Economics, usually those including uncertainties or stochastic elements and nonlinear dynamics. ... Categories: Animal stubs | Animal behaviour | Social psychology ... The Austrian School is a school of economic thought that rejects opposing economists reliance on methods used in natural science for the study of human action, and instead bases its formalism of economics on relationships through logic or introspection called praxeology. ...

The distribution of purchasing power in an economy depends to a large extent on social class, labor and financial markets, but also on other, lesser factors such as family relationships, inheritance, gifts and so on. Many theories describing the operation of a free market focus primarily on the markets for consumer products, and their description of the labor market or financial markets tends to be more complicated and controversial. Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... In finance, financial markets facilitate: The raising of capital (in the capital markets); The transfer of risk (in the derivatives markets); and International trade (in the currency markets). ... For other uses, see inheritance (disambiguation). ... Look up Gift in Wiktionary, the free dictionary This page is about gifts in the common English-language sense. ...

The free market can be seen as facilitating a form of decision-making through what is known as dollar voting, where a purchase of a product is tantamount to casting a vote for a producer to continue producing that product. In economics, dollar voting is an analogy used to explain how the purchasing choices of consumers affect which products will continue to be produced and supplied to the market. ...

The effect of economic freedom on society's and individuals' wealth remains a subject of controversy. Kenneth Arrow and Gerard Debreu have shown that under certain idealized conditions, a system of free trade leads to Pareto efficiency. Wealth is an abundance of items of economic value, or the state of controlling or possessing such items, and encompasses money, real estate and personal property. ... Kenneth Arrow Kenneth Joseph Arrow (born August 23, 1921) is an American economist, winner of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in 1972. ... Gerard Debreu was a naturalized US citizen from France Gerard Debreu (July 4, 1921 â€“ December 31, 2004) was a French-born American economist who won the 1983 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. ... Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality, is a central theory in economics with broad applications in game theory, engineering and the social sciences. ...

Many advocates of free makets, most notably Milton Friedman, have also argued that there is a direct relationship between economic growth and economic freedom, though this assertion is much harder to prove both theoretically and empirically. Milton Friedman (born July 31, 1912) is a U.S. economist, known primarily for his work on macroeconomics and for his advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism. ...

Joshua Epstein and Robert Axtell have attempted to predict the properties of free markets in an agent-based computer simulation called sugarscape. They came to the conclusion that, again under idealized conditions, free markets lead to a Pareto distribution of wealth. The Pareto distribution, named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, is a power law probability distribution found in a large number of real-world situations. ...

Practice

While the free-market is an idealized abstraction, it is useful in understanding real markets whether artificially created and regulated by governments or non-governmental agencies, or phenomena such as the black market and the underground economy, which can be remarkably robust in persisting despite attempts to suppress these markets. The underground market is the part of economic activity involving illegal dealings, typically the buying and selling of merchandise illegally. ... The underground economy consists of all trade that occurs without detection by government so that commerce and income are not taxed. ...

The degree of market freedom

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, tried to identify the key factors which allow to measure the degree of freedom of economy of a particular country. In 1986 they introduced Index of Economic Freedom, which is based on some fifty variables. This and other similar indices do not define a free market, but measure the degree to which a modern economy is free, meaning in most cases free of state intervention. The variables are divided into the following major groups: The Heritage Foundation, a think tank located in Washington, D.C., is an influential public policy research institute. ... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ... This article is about the institution. ... The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual report published by The Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation. ...

Each group is assigned a numerical value between 1 and 5; IEF is the arithmetical mean of the values, rounded to the hundredth.

Initially, countries which were traditionally considered capitalistic received high ratings, but the method improved over time. Today one can see a vivid correlation between EOF value and country's GDP. [3]

Ideology and ethics

Support for the free market as an ordering principle of society is above all associated with liberalism, especially during the 19th century. In Europe, the term 'liberalism' retains its connotation as the ideology of the free market, but in American usage it came to be associated with government intervention, and acquired a pejorative meaning for supporters of the free market. Later ideological developments, such as minarchism and libertarianism also support the free market, and insist on its pure form. Although the Western world shares a generally similar form of economy, usage in the United States is to refer to this as capitalism, while in Europe 'free market' is the preferred neutral term. This article discusses liberalism as a major political ideology as it developed and stands currently. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... The connotation of a word or other expression in a language may be one of several aspects of its meaning. ... Look up pejorative on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In civics, minarchism, sometimes called minimal statism or small government, is the view that the size, role and influence of government in a free society should be minimal - only large enough to protect the liberty of each and every individual, without violating the liberty of any individuals itself, thus maximizing... This article is about the classical liberal individualist philosophy that strongly emphasizes private property rights conjoined with civil liberties. ... The term Western world or the West can have multiple meanings depending on its context. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Capitalism Capitalism has been defined in various ways. ...

Marxism, communism, and socialism are usually seen as the main ideological opponents of the free market. Modern liberalism (American usage), and in Europe social democracy, seek only to mitigate what they see as the problems of an unrestrained free market, and accept its existence as such. To most right-wing libertarians, there is simply no free market yet, given the degree of state intervention in even the most 'capitalist' of countries. From their perspective, those who say they favor a "free market" are speaking in a relative, rather than an absolute, sense -- meaning (in libertarian terms) they wish that coercion be kept to the minimum that is necessary to maximize economic freedom (such necessary coercion would be taxation, for example) and to maximize market efficiency by lowering trade barriers, making the tax system neutral in its influence on important decisions such as how to raise capital, e.g., eliminating the double tax on dividends so that equity financing is not at a disadvantage vis'a'vis debt financing. However, there are some such as anarcho-capitalists who would not even allow for taxation and governments, instead preferring protectors of economic freedom in the form of private contractors. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Communism refers to a conjectured future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production, and can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. ... Socialism is an ideology of a social and economic system where the means of production are collectively owned and administered by all of society. ... New liberalism (also called modern liberalism or American liberalism) is a political philosophy that argues for the idea that society has the responsibility of guaranteeing equal opportunities for each of its citizens. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ... Coercion is the practice of compelling a person to act by employing threat of harm (usually physical force, sometimes other forms of harm). ... The dividend tax is the tax on corporate dividends. ... Anarcho-capitalism is a view that regards all forms of the state as unnecessary and harmful, particularly in matters of justice and self-defense, while being highly supportive of private property. ...

The ethical justification of free markets takes two forms. One appeals to the intrinsic moral superiority of autonomy and freedom (in the market), see deontology. The other is a form of consequentialism - a belief that decentralised planning by a multitude of individuals making free economic decisions produces better results in regard to a more organized, efficient, and productive economy, than does a centrally-planned economy where a central agency decides what is produced, and allocates goods by non-price mechanisms. An older version of this argument is the metaphor of the Invisible Hand, familiar from the work of Adam Smith, although it is older. In Smith's time there were no centrally planned economies to serve as a comparison, he was simply arguing that the market benefits the common good. Modern theories of self-organization say the internal organization of a system can increase automatically without being guided or managed by an outside source. When applied to the market, as an ethical justification, they are appealing primarily to its intrinsic value as a self-organising entity. Intense admiration for these abilities of the market became a characteristic of some pro-market argument in the 1990's, especially among those who saw the internet as a form of perfect market. Justification can mean: justification (jurisprudence) justification (typesetting) justification (theology) In epistemology, justification of a belief is what renders it worth believing in terms of its probable truth. ... Autonomy is the condition of something that does not depend on anything else. ... In moral philosophy, deontology is the view that morality either forbids or permits actions, which is done through moral norms. ... Consequentialism is a moral theory that holds that what ultimately counts in evaluating actions or policies of action are the consequences that result from the particular action or policy pursued. ... In language, a metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin) is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two seemingly unrelated subjects. ... The Invisible hand is a metaphor created by Adam Smith to illustrate the principle of enlightened self interest. ... Adam Smith, FRSE (baptised June 5, 1723 â€“ July 17, 1790) Is considered the father of economics. He was a Scottish political economist and moral philosopher. ... The common good is a term that can refer to several different concepts. ... Self-organization refers to a process in which the internal organization of a system, normally an open system, increases automatically without being guided or managed by an outside source. ... Intrinsic value in general, is the argument that the value of a product is intrinsic within the product rather than dependent on the buyers perception. ...

Legal Tender law and Taxes. Are they compatible with a free market?

Some people believe that Money, in a truly free market economy, is not monopolized by legal tender laws or by a central money maker authority which coerces society to use its own money as the unique medium of exchange in trades, in order to receive taxes from the transactions or to be able to issue loans. An example of Money. ... Legal tender or forced tender is payment that cannot be refused in settlement of a debt denominated in the same currency by virtue of law. ... Value added tax (VAT) is a sales tax levied on the sale of goods and services. ... It has been suggested that Lenders be merged into this article or section. ...

On the other hand, the so called "coercion" of taxes is arguably essential for the market's survival, and a market free from taxes may lead to no market at all. It is obvious that there is no market without private property and it is also obvious that private property itself can only exist while there is someone to defend it and define it. Traditionally, the State defends private property and defines it by issuing ownership titles, and also nominates the central authority to print or mint currency. It is reasonable to coerce people who are doing their exchanges and their trades to give something back in return for the state defense and definition of the money or of the real estate property they gained during those trades. If no taxes are given back to the state then the state collapses. The state's collapse causes private property such as money or real estate to be undefined, and without money or real property, the market, too, may collapse. After the state's collapse only movable goods such as energy sources or information or weapons can (if stored carefully) still remain privately owned and become the subject of a new stateless market. Energy development is the ongoing effort to provide abundant and accessible energy through knowledge, skills, and constructions. ... Information as a concept bears a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. ... A weapon is a tool used to kill or incapacitate a person or animal, or destroy a military target. ...

"Free market anarchists" disagree with the above assessment, as they maintain that private property and free markets can be protected by voluntarily-funded services (see individualist anarchism and anarcho-capitalism). A free market could be defined alternatively as a tax-free market, independent of any central authority, which uses as medium of exchange one or several objects (real or virtual ones) that hold the three properties of money (store value, medium of exchange, and unit of account) along with a fourth property of use value (such as energy) or being trusted (as gold was in antiquity) even in the absence of the State. It is disputed, however, whether this hypothetical stateless market could function freely, without coercion and violence. Individualist anarchism is a philosophical tradition that opposes collectivism and has a particularly strong emphasis on the supremacy and autonomy of the individual. ... Anarcho-capitalism refers to an anti-statist philosophy that embraces capitalism as one of its foundational principles. ...

Encyclopedia > Free market economics

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