Is the Libertarian economic ideal viable?

Question

I'm skeptical. Doesn't capitalism unchecked tend toward monopoly and the disintegration of the middle class? And how are monopolies healthy?

Answer 1

I think it is only good for those with capital.

If our society had been libertarian for the last 200 years:
We would not have free public education
We would not have any force of law for equal protection and equal opportunity
We would be living in environmental filth on a par with China and India
We would have no zoning or enforceable community standards (gambling and sex shops next to your day care centers and schools)
We would have cars unsafe at every speed (as we once did)
We would have pharmaceuticals poisoning our minds with false advertising and dangerous drugs (or more than they currently do).
There would be no social security
There would be no medicare
There would be no public assistance for the sick, or disabled.
There would be no workers compensation
There would be no unemployment insurance
Hospitals would be free to turn away the sick or injured who could not pay
All highways would be private toll roads
All airports would be private as well, and forget about air safety.

Basically most every government service and every regulatory statute to insure standards, safety, fairness and protection of the weak and vulnerable would be non existent.

Libertarians simply believe that the market place will take care of all of these things. They are so wrong.

Answer 2

Monopolies can only exist in one of two circumstances:

1. They provide such a high quality product or service at such a low cost that no one can compete.

2. Government regulations make it costly to enter the marketplace and create artificial barriers to competition that benefit the large company which becomes a monopoly, regardless of the quality of their product or service.

The disintegration of the middle class is a completely unrelated issue. The middle class is destroyed through a mechanism called monetary inflation. Monetary inflation can only be created by government policy and central banks that freely print money and debase the currency. True free market capitalism would not support a central bank monopoly and would, instead, support competing banks that would have to provide a high quality depository system that would preserve the value of the currency.

Monopolies are not "healthy" or "unhealthy." They simply exist or not. A monopoly is typically a symptom of advanced technological know how or government regulation, nothing else.

Answer 3

Monopolies are illegal for one so ideally they would not exist; however, there is a lot of confusion these days over what is really a monopoly. For example, Wal Mart is not a monopoly by any definition.

It is the most viable economic ideal. The government's sole responsibility would be regulation, so Enron would more than likely never have happened, and markets could work as efficiently and effectively as possible. Jobs would come back to America. Products would be cheaper and of better quality.

The middle class would be better off and people would be paid based on what they deserve, how hard they work, and how much they contribute to society. Survival of the fittest would come in to play. In the long-run, you would have fewer homeless people because companies could employ them for say $1 an hour, which is better than nothing.

Answer 4

Yes. The libertarian ideal isn't 'unchecked' capitalism, though, just free-market capitalism. Monopolies and other forms of collusion do not apeal to most libertarians, for instance. But laize-faire capitalism doesn't really lend itself as well to monopolies as you might think. Ultimately, a monopoly is a form of collusion that seeks to impose it's will on a market - markets can and do resist monopoly power (look at how much trouble Microsoft has keeping people from ripping it's OS, just for example).


Now, some other the Libertarian ideas are less viable. Depending entirely on private security rather than police, for instance...

Answer 5

Yes, it would work. And no free enterprize doesn't tend toward monopolies. The only monopolies that exist are those which are specifically created by government regulation such as utility companies, railroads, the U.S. mail, etc.

It would be very difficult for a monopoly to to be created in a free market. Because there would be nothing to prevent competitive businesses from entering the market.

Answer 6

If a monopoly pops up, it means that business is providing you with the best service or good at the best value. If they stop doing this, the market will invite competitors to either take away from their market share or force them to get back to what made them so competitive.

Answer 7

No economic system is perfect, but free and open markets come closest

Capitalism is the only hope for the world. It is a tide that lifts all boats.