Marketism
Free-marketism is a loose aggregation of beliefs that generally favor private enterprise over government, almost always advocating for "smaller" government or at least less government regulation of private business (laissez-faire economics). Some advocate for the abolishment of government altogether.
Terminology
An adherent of free marketism is called a free-marketeer or free-marketist.
Free-marketism that only advocates for "smaller" government, i.e. deregulation, is a form of minarchism.
Free-marketeers who advocate for the complete abolishment of government often self-identify as anarcho-capitalists (AnCaps for short), a form of anarchism, or as advocates of "Austrian economics", a reference to the Mises Institute.
Beliefs
Free-marketeers generally believe some combination of the following:
- Government is not inherently something desirable.
- Government is inherently evil.
- A society without government would be more free.
- All political power comes from government.
- Monopolies cannot exist without government.
- All coercion originates from government.
- Government is the only thing forcing people to associate with others they do not wish to associate with.
- (...which ignores factors such as non-portability of major assets such as land and housing)
- Government has a monopoly on force.
- A society without government would not have extreme wealth or power inequality.
- In a society without government, any entity that acted malevolently would quickly become unprofitable and thereby disempowered.
more free.
Hypothesis
Free-marketist philosophy may be summed up as "In the absence of government, we will be safe from people who want to exploit others because we can freely form organizations to protect ourselves from outsiders with ill intent. These organizations are different from governments because they will do things the way I think things ought to be done, and because I will, of course, be among the leaders." (h/t Jeremy Nixon in this thread)
Links
Reference
Organizations
- Mises Institute: by far the most common source of free-marketist philosophy