Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Free market: A free market in economics is a system where prices and the distribution of goods and services are determined by supply and demand, with minimal government intervention. In a free market, producers and consumers make decisions based on their self-interest, leading to competition, innovation, and efficient resource allocation. See also Markets._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Adam Smith on Free Market - Dictionary of Arguments
Otteson I 52 Free market/Adam Smith/Otteson: (…) Smith is (…) condemnatory of grasping merchants and businessmen who seek legal protections of their industries or prices. "People of the same trade seldom meet together," Smith writes, "even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices" (WN(1): 145). Such merchants often proclaim that trade barriers, tariffs, and other legal protections are for the good of the country, but Smith exposes these claims as special pleading, since in practice they work to increase those particular merchants' profits at the expense not only of their competitors but also of the public at large. Keeping prices up and limiting competition will certainly benefit the favored businesses, but such policies just as certainly impose artificial costs on everyone else. SmithVsProtectionism: Smith argues that the way to deal with such attempts to procure legally granted special protections or favors is, however, typically not to ask the government to regulate them. Instead, it is to disallow legally enforced privileges in the first place. Competition: Markets and open competition are, Smith thinks, better providers of social benefit than short-sighted regulation by politically motivated legislators - who are, after all, often remunerated handsomely by the very merchants and businesses from whom they profess to protect the public. Otteson: (…) Smith was no anti-government anarchist, nor even a modern-day libertarian. But the Smithian government is quite small by contemporary standards. Cf. >Liberalism, >Libertarianism, >Communitarianism, >Anarchism. 1. Smith, Adam. (1776) The Wealth of Nations. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
EconSmith I Adam Smith The Theory of Moral Sentiments London 2010 EconSmithV I Vernon L. Smith Rationality in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Forms Cambridge 2009 Otteson I James R. Otteson The Essential Adam Smith Vancouver: Fraser Institute. 2018 |
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