> The free market has never existed on a wide scale, so no company currently has to survive in a free market.
But...
> This is so ridiculous
It is? Aren't you saying the same thing?
But...
> This is so ridiculous
It is? Aren't you saying the same thing?
Despite the "state of nature" being theoretical, you wouldn't say that the reason people harm eachother is because of government regulations, would you? Of course you wouldn't, because you can think of a lot of reasons for people to harm eachother absent government regulation.
See? You can say that the complete absence of social structure is a theoretical state and also say that the presence of government and social structure is not the sole cause for conflict.
First, I didn't say "conflict"; my statement was much more specific. Second, companies are not people. Companies are tools that people use. Some people misuse them.
Perhaps it will help if I rephrase: the reason nefarious people can use companies as tools to do nefarious things on a large scale, the kind of scale that affects a large number of people, is government regulation.
>the reason nefarious people can use companies as tools to do nefarious things on a large scale, the kind of scale that affects a large number of people, is government regulation.
You are wrong. Companies do nefarious things on a large scale and would even at peak efficiency in a free market because it is more efficient to cause harm than it is to take steps to prevent it.
Looking back to less regulated times in the US may be illustrative.
When there was no government regulation for river cleanliness, companies routinely polluted the rivers. They did not do this because of the government regulation that, again, did not exist. They did it because it is a lot cheaper to dirty a river than it is to install the mechanisms to keep it clean, and the benefits to the company from keeping the river clean, barring regulatory oversight, do not suffice to balance the scales.
Similarly, in countries with less stringent regulations companies pollute and cause widespread harm.
The acceptable level of pollution in a free-market system is much higher than the desirable level, because until a tipping point where the company's sales are impacted they will continue to pollute. The equilibrium point is lowered through regulation. That's literally what it does.