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“Free Market” Doesn’t Mean “Pro-Business” – Art Carden – The Economic Imagination – Forbes

No, it certainly doesn’t.

Art Carden, at Forbes‘s Economic Imagination blog, explains the difference:

Is a “free market” agenda the same thing as a “pro-business” agenda? Economists of a libertarian persuasion find this frustrating because our enthusiasm for free markets is often mistaken as enthusiasm for specific businesses or corporate interests. But just because something is good for General Motors does not mean it is necessarily good for America….

In a free market, you are welcome, and indeed encouraged, to enter the mousetrap industry if you think you can build a better mousetrap or find a way to make similar mousetraps more efficiently. The other side of that coin is that you will be encouraged to leave the mousetrap industry if it turns out that your mousetraps are not better, but inferior.

A “free market” agenda is not the same thing as a “pro business” agenda. Businesses should not be protected from competition, losses, and bankruptcy when they fail to deliver for the customer. All three are essential to truly free markets and free enterprise.

See, “Free Market” Doesn’t Mean “Pro-Business” – Art Carden – The Economic Imagination – Forbes.

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