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Comment by kelseyfrog | Hacker News Reader

Voluntary transactional free association between consenting adults and the author ends with a "yes, but not like that!"

> Only this complete upheaval of traditional gender dynamics could allow high-achieving women to “sugar baby” for working class men, and without any tangible consequence to the women.

The author advocates a social-regulatory framework to preserve market relations. I can't see how increasing regulation can do anything but distort the market, but I'm willing to be proven wrong. The whole piece comes across as a "I'm more interested in a return to regulatory capture than I am interested in competing in an evolving and dynamic environment." Sorry, but in any market there's winners and losers. What are we going to do, start getting rid of free markets?

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> What are we going to do, start getting rid of free markets?

This is a standard response to markets societies wants to apply boundaries to, yes. Obviously for illegal ones (slaves, child porn, hard drugs) and also regulated ones (medical advice, nuclear weapons).

> in any market there's winners and losers.

Most examples I gave above all have one thing in common: there is a moral objection to the free market due to the vulnerability of one of the parties.

This is an issue that needs to be addressed, and particularly so by proponents of free markets, in a more convincing way than "tough luck". Otherwise the "losers" have no reason to accept that free markets are desirable.

Market losers are typically guided into individual responsibility. This is no different.

> I can't see how increasing regulation can do anything but distort the market

You're saying it like distorting the market is always wrong.

> What are we going to do, start getting rid of free markets?

Free market is an abstraction, which doesn't exist in reality.

I would like to add that "free market" is a bad description of the state of markets with the United States in general. The government has directly affected the price and legality of many goods including cheese, magnets, corn, houses, education, and more. That's all before we can even start to discuss the systematic effects of fiat money. The idea that we are collectively operating in a free market is a fairly tale.

What are the regulations distorting the dating market?

Calling it a market is a bit odd, but I'll play ball.

Marriage. Unequal rules for participants based on financial success would be another. Arbitrary age limits.

I am generally a supporter of these concepts and this kind of meddling.

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