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Comment by cpayne | Hacker News Reader

I never really understand why comments like this get downvoted.

There seems to be love for the free market. That is until the free market goes against what I want. Then the free market sucks!

What if FARK was another type of business. Say it is the corner 7-11[1]. They have been there for 18 years, and their major source of customers was the big factory next door.

Factory decides to either move / redesign / whatever, where the customers are no longer available.

The store makes a big noise - would anyone care?

[1] in this example, I mean any sort of "corner store". 20 years ago we'd call them milk bars, but now I'm showing my age...

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>That is until the free market goes against what I want. Then the free market sucks!

I'm not sure anyone is saying that the free market sucks. People are saying that there is no free market in some sectors and that, in the absence of a reasonably efficient free market, the least worst alternative is regulation.

I think it sucks, but that's because I'm a Communist.

heh, fair point. Command economy advocates aside nobody is saying the free market sucks :)

What people really want is a competitive market.

What people want is in conflict.

What entrepreneurs want is to play the game and win big. What consumers want is for every entrepreneur to play the game, but for no one to win big. So yes, consumers want competition - entrepreneurs not so much.

This whole thing is actually funny to look from the outside - big payoffs are essentially a carrot dangled in front of people so that they start companies and get into competition with each other, which drives innovation and lowers prices. But it's meant to be a lie - you can't deliver on the promise too much, you can't have one player actually win, because this destroys competition, and with it it destroys the benefits the whole process brings to the society.

You raise a good point, but I start to have a feeling people read my comment as a defense of Google and free markets. It's not. The opening sentence was meant sarcastically.

These days, you can never tell for sure.

Poe's Law strikes again!

In a free market, if a company breaks its Terms of Service with me I have the legal right to walk up and shoot every Employee and Shareholder of that company (No limited liability in a free market -- that's a government decree.)

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