Editing Free market (section)

=== Criticism ===
{{See also|Criticism of capitalism}}

Critics of a ''laissez-faire'' free market have argued that in real world situations it has proven to be susceptible to the development of [[price fixing]] monopolies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tarbell|first=Ida|author-link=Ida Tarbell|title=The History of the Standard Oil Company|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924096224799|publisher=McClure, Phillips and Co.|year=1904}}</ref> Such reasoning has led to government intervention, e.g. the [[United States antitrust law]]. Critics of the free market also argue that it results in significant [[Dominance (economics)|market dominance]], [[inequality of bargaining power]], or [[information asymmetry]], in order to allow markets to function more freely.

Critics of a free market often argue that some market failures require government intervention.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Free market |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/free-market |access-date=2022-10-15 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en |archive-date=2022-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020092442/https://www.britannica.com/topic/free-market |url-status=live }}</ref> Economists [[Ronald Coase]], [[Milton Friedman]], [[Ludwig von Mises]], and [[Friedrich Hayek]] have responded by arguing that markets can internalize or adjust to supposed market failures.<ref name=":0" />

Two prominent Canadian authors argue that government at times has to intervene to ensure competition in large and important industries. [[Naomi Klein]] illustrates this roughly in her work ''[[The Shock Doctrine]]'' and [[John Ralston Saul]] more humorously illustrates this through various examples in ''The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World''.<ref name="The End of Globalism. Saul, John">Saul, John ''The End of Globalism''.</ref> While its supporters argue that only a free market can create healthy competition and therefore more business and reasonable prices, opponents say that a free market in its purest form may result in the opposite. According to Klein and Ralston, the merging of companies into giant corporations or the privatization of government-run industry and national assets often result in monopolies or oligopolies requiring government intervention to [[Competition law|force competition]] and reasonable prices.<ref name="The End of Globalism. Saul, John"/> 

Another form of market failure is [[speculation]], where transactions are made to profit from short term fluctuation, rather from the [[intrinsic value (finance)|intrinsic value]] of the companies or products. This criticism has been challenged by historians such as [[Lawrence Reed]], who argued that monopolies have historically failed to form even in the absence of antitrust law.<ref>[https://fee.org/articles/41-rockefellers-standard-oil-company-proved-that-we-needed-anti-trust-laws-to-fight-such-market-monopolies/ "Cliche #41: "Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company Proved That We Needed Anti-Trust Laws to Fight Such Market Monopolies"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216010448/https://fee.org/articles/41-rockefellers-standard-oil-company-proved-that-we-needed-anti-trust-laws-to-fight-such-market-monopolies/ |date=2017-02-16 }}, ''[[The Freeman]]'', January 23, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2016.</ref>{{unreliable source?|reason=fringe advocacy source|date=October 2021}} This is because monopolies are inherently difficult to maintain as a company that tries to maintain its monopoly by buying out new competitors, for instance, is incentivizing newcomers to enter the market in hope of a buy-out. Furthermore, according to writer Walter Lippman and economist Milton Friedman, historical analysis of the formation of monopolies reveals that, contrary to popular belief, these were the result not of unfettered market forces, but of legal privileges granted by government.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-04-25|title=Why We Need To Re-think Friedman's Ideas About Monopolies|url=https://promarket.org/2021/04/25/milton-friedman-monopoly-self-interest/|access-date=2021-09-27|website=ProMarket|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-09-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927191628/https://promarket.org/2021/04/25/milton-friedman-monopoly-self-interest/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|reason=fringe advocacy source|date=October 2021}}

American philosopher and author [[Cornel West]] has derisively termed what he perceives as [[dogma]]tic arguments for ''[[laissez-faire]]'' economic policies as [[market fundamentalism|free-market fundamentalism]]. West has contended that such mentality "trivializes the concern for public interest" and "makes money-driven, poll-obsessed elected officials deferential to corporate goals of profit – often at the cost of the common good".<ref>[http://www.theglobalist.com/cornel-west-democracy-matters/ "Cornel West: Democracy Matters"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141015220208/http://www.theglobalist.com/cornel-west-democracy-matters/ |date=2014-10-15 }}, ''[[The Globalist]]'', January 24, 2005. Retrieved October 9, 2014.</ref> American political philosopher [[Michael J. Sandel]] contends that in the last thirty years the United States has moved beyond just having a market economy and has become a market society where literally everything is for sale, including aspects of social and civic life such as education, access to justice and political influence.<ref>[[Michael J. Sandel]] (June 2013). [http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_sandel_why_we_shouldn_t_trust_markets_with_our_civic_life Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150521110607/http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_sandel_why_we_shouldn_t_trust_markets_with_our_civic_life |date=2015-05-21 }}. [[TED (conference)|TED]]. Retrieved January 11, 2015.</ref> The economic historian [[Karl Polanyi]] was highly critical of the idea of the market-based society in his book ''[[The Great Transformation (book)|The Great Transformation]]'', stating that any attempt at its creation would undermine human society and the common good:<ref>Henry Farrell (July 18, 2014). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/07/18/the-free-market-is-an-impossible-utopia/ The free market is an impossible utopia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915010202/http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/07/18/the-free-market-is-an-impossible-utopia/ |date=2015-09-15 }}. ''[[The Washington Post]].'' Retrieved January 11, 2015.</ref> "Ultimately...the control of the economic system by the market is of overwhelming consequence to the whole organization of society; it means no less than the running of society as an adjunct to the market. Instead of economy being embedded in social relations, social relations are embedded in the economic system."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Polanyi |first=Karl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YfpIs1Z6B2sC |title=The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time |date=2001-03-28 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=978-0-8070-5642-4 |pages=60 |language=en |access-date=2023-01-04 |archive-date=2023-01-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104145109/https://books.google.com/books?id=YfpIs1Z6B2sC&newbks=0&hl=en |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[David McNally (professor)|David McNally]] of the University of Houston argues in the Marxist tradition that the logic of the market inherently produces inequitable outcomes and leads to unequal exchanges, arguing that [[Adam Smith]]'s moral intent and moral philosophy espousing equal exchange was undermined by the practice of the free market he championed. According to McNally, the development of the [[market economy]] involved coercion, exploitation and violence that Smith's moral philosophy could not countenance. McNally also criticizes market socialists for believing in the possibility of fair markets based on equal exchanges to be achieved by purging parasitical elements from the market economy such as [[private ownership]] of the [[means of production]], arguing that [[market socialism]] is an oxymoron when [[socialism]] is defined as an end to [[wage labour]].<ref>{{cite book|last=McNally|first=David|title=Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism and the Marxist Critique|publisher=Verso|year=1993|isbn=978-0860916062}}</ref>