Critical Writing Assigment 4

The free marketplace represents a superlative model of capitalism, since it denotes the most proficient and profitable way of production. In a free market, economic actors are capable of conducting business devoid of political interferences, such as the burden of a minimum wage, or trade in tariffs. Without these limits, economic actors are abridged to a state of clean competition, driving costs downstairs and resulting in senior quality and lower price products.

In the article “Moral Criticisms of the Market”, Ken S. Ewert elaborates on the many critiques of the “Free Market” made by the so called Christian left. He essentially defends the free market against the many accusations, blaming it for the selfishness, materialism, individualism as well as the drive for power within the economic system. Furthermore, although he acknowledges that these issues exist, he doesn’t feel the “Free Market” is the ultimate cause. “The free market is innocent of the charges against it by Christian critics. Its alleged shortcomings are things that can occur to mankind in both a free or command economic system” (Ewert, 1989). Additionally, he suggests that the state intervention and not the free market has caused the

A limited government, such as a commercial government, is required in order to have a successful and functioning free market society. Such a government provides legal context for contractual agreements, and maintaining law, but does not constrain the freedom of individual thinkers. This type of government does not interfere with the competitive nature, and innovative process of the free market. In fact, such government protects the rights of individuals and their interests, ideas, and innovations. In a government such as democracy, an individual’s freedom might be less than a Republic government, therefore limiting competition and innovation. Competition is constant in such an economy (limited government) that protects these rights and ideas.

If the ideas of good economic were to exist in a three dimensional plane, Cass Sunstein wants the readers to believe that those who support the idea of Laissez-faire were only looking at the issues from a one or two dimensional model of the situation. Opponents of new dealers were not resentful of the existence of government or were the first to call on the government intervention in the areas that the government were more apt to guard certain freedoms better than the individual. With bestowal of the power, however, the framers specifically delineated its region and radius of

The government does not necessarily need to intervene how the marker goes. Therefore, the competition is a significant factor of the free marker economy.Active but limited government is another main part of the free market economy. This means that the government undertakes a significant, active role in the market, but at the same time the government’s role is ver limited because all the investments and decisions in the economy are controlled by the market than by the government. An invisible hand will control the market. Limited government is a type of government in which there is a minimum intervention in personal properties. Overall, the government tries to keep the economy in a law and let it free by limiting itself. Hence, the limited government is an essential factor of the free market economy.Last, self-interest is a significant part of the free market economy. Self-interest refers to one’s desire to buy something. The market will be generally controlled by people’s interest; the companies will compete with one another to fit the best taste. This is because the people’s interest will be the main trend in the market and it will control what should be made in the market. Consequently, the market will be self-regulated according to the theory of a free market. Therefore, the self-interest is another significant factor of the free market economy.Therefore, the competition, the

The definition of what a free market is, is a market economy based on the supply and on the demand of or with very little government control. A free market is where buyers and the sellers are able to go and buy and transact freely based on mutual agreement that they have made on the price of what the state intervention of takes subsides or is regulated.

Since the early days of the United States, the Founding Fathers and other brilliant minds sought ways to understand and make sense of the inner workings of society and the economic market. Out of the many thinkers and developers of that time period, perhaps none made so great an impact on American society as the Scottish contemporary philosopher and political economist, Adam Smith—who is most known for his influential work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, By the early nineteenth century, other streams of economic theory emerged from various individuals who were also influenced by the ideas of Smith. Some of these individuals included David Ricardo, Karl Marx and later John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman—each of whom contributed their own ideas on economic activity. However, it was Smith’s ideas on capitalism and his laissez-faire approach to free markets that have transcended other economic theories and continue to impact American economic thought to this day.

Free markets have often been idealized in the US, and have become a dominant tool for trade and distribution of goods and services. There have been multiple waves of government regulation and deregulation of the market in US history. Each of these trends have been grappling with the central question of how sufficient markets are at satisfying our goals. In theory, free markets are fair and efficient at distributing goods and services. In reality, however, government must intervene in the marketplace for two overarching reasons. First, because in practice free markets left to themselves are not always fair and efficient. And second, because fairness and efficiency are not our only goals and

As a conversation reveals more about a person, their beliefs, desires, etc., so does the free market economy reveal the characteristics and individuality of a particular region, province, or country. “Not everyone appreciated the free market. Yet there are striking similarities between the marketplace and a good conversation, and, if anything, the benefits from the communication, cooperation, and compromise of the marketplace are even greater than those from a good conversation.” From the start, this article makes similar a good conversation and the free market, in that both benefit from the cooperation and communication. Communication for example needs to be honest. If you are not telling the truth to whomever you are speaking with, then what good is that conversation? It gets you nowhere. This ideal is directly proportional to that of the free market ideology. How much would a certain company gain (in the long run) if it led the consumer to believe one thing and then produced another? Soon, when word leaked about that corporation’s deceit, the

“They were convinced that the free market had the ability to create economic abundance and moral order simultaneously-that its invisible hand would punish the indolent and reward the entrepreneurs.”( page 262)

Cavanaugh critiques the modern “free-market” and how it has a fundamentally flawed view of freedom. The modern belief of the “free-market” is flawed, according to Cavanaugh, it defines freedom in a negative manner, as an absolute freedom from any external constraints. He states it is precisely this concept of freedom, resting upon the dubious modern notion of a completely “autonomous individual,” A proper view of freedom within a market economy, Cavanaugh proclaims, must be defined positively as a freedom for a useful and purposeful end.

Karl Polanyi's (1944/1957) Societies and Economic Systems, The Great Transformation, provides a historical background to the structure of markets before the modern era. It is important to first differentiate between markets and the market economy in order to understand the factors that make up economies. The market economy is "a self-regulating system of markets" that is "directed by market prices and nothing but market prices" (p. 43). Polanyi argues that having an economy of some form is essential to the survival of a society, however, he notices that pervious societies successfully existed with no evidence of market control (p. 43). Markets have existed since the Stone Age, but their role was "no more than incidental to economic life" because it did

In actuality, Friedman admits that the market system has many more complications, not the least of which was the introduction of money, but at its center still stands the two principles of a truly voluntary system: “ (a) that enterprises are private, so that the ultimate contracting parties are individuals and (b) that individuals are effectively free to enter or not to enter into any particular exchange, so that every transaction is strictly voluntary” . These factors are the building blocks of economic freedom, where each individual holds an equal vote in the way the market works.

The free-market embodies the ideals set forth by Adam Smith. The free market is different from other markets in that it allows its participants to purse their own interests rather than requiring the dictation of a government or ruler. This pursuit of self-interest causes a

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was one of the greatest economists in the world with his concept of the “Invisible Hand”. The “Invisible Hand” explains the reasons why people do things in the market based on the principles of supply and demand. This theory also creates an economic system called free market or liberal market. This type of market has some main features namely, no governmental interventions and high competition. Adam Smith’s theory is interesting because he was the first one to set up the idea of a “market” that still exists now. The aim of this essay is to give an overview of the “Invisible hand”, analyze advantages and disadvantages of