Quote from: Evanescence on October 15, 2012, 07:53 amGraham gimme a break. By your own citation a purely free market is an "idealized" notion.I'll repeat it for you: Free markets with no regulation are a theoretical concept and do no exist in the developed world.If you disagree, by all means give us a counter example to one of my statements rather than just using insults.Why would I give you a break? I'm giving you the information you lack about a topic you clearly know very little about; despite your shortcomings in that regard you are attempting to shoot down somebody else's points as though you're a master on the subject. Hell, it's practically my duty to stand up for the person who was right in the first place. ;)In the source I quoted it did indeed state that a free market is an idealised notion. However, it has not taken a market such as Silk Road into account; it is based purely on current real world government controlled markets. Silk Road is an agorist marketplace - you may need to read up a little about agorism if you wish to continue this debate further.Agorism is centered around a market completely free of "government intervention in the form of taxes, price controls and restrictions that prevent new competitors from entering a market." - that bit in quotation marks defines a market that is not free. We do not have that here, thus we have a free market. It's really quite simple. ???Read the quoted text again:Quote from: grahamgreene on October 02, 2012, 05:56 am[SNIP]The "free market" DOES have a fixed, agreed-upon definition (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/freemarket.asp#axzz287EILD8w):"A market economy based on supply and demand with little or no government control. A completely free market is an idealized form of a market economy where buyers and sellers are allowed to transact freely (i.e. buy/sell/trade) based on a mutual agreement on price without state intervention in the form of taxes, subsidies or regulation.Investopedia explains 'Free Market':In simple terms, a free market is a summary term for an array of exchanges that take place in society. Each exchange is a voluntary agreement between two parties who trade in the form of goods and services. In reality, this is the extent to which a free market exists since there will always be government intervention in the form of taxes, price controls and restrictions that prevent new competitors from entering a market. Just like supply-side economics, free market is a term used to describe a political or ideological viewpoint on policy and is not a field within economics."The fact that there is NO "government intervention in the form of taxes, price controls and restrictions that prevent new competitors from entering a market" means that yes, this is the dictionary definition of a free market.I'm not entirely sure where you studied economics but you should probably look into some way of getting refunded for the substandard schooling you received. ???[SNIP]- grahamgreene