Retribution not enough

[Jim Choate]

On Mon, 22 Oct 2001, Sandy Sandfort wrote:

> Inchoate gets it wrong again.  This is where that remedial reading course
> would come in handy.
> 
> He wrote:
> 
> > The very basis of free market economies,
> > one is rewarded FAIRLY for their efforts.
> 
> No, quite clearly the basis of free market economies is FREEDOM.  That's why
> they're called "FREE market economies" (not "FAIR market economies.")

And they can be 'free' ONLY if all parties act fairly. A player in a game
most certainly does NOT have a 'free' choice if one or more players are
cheating.

The bottom line, a choice can only be called 'free' if it is
unconstrained. That means that the party making it not only is
unconstrained but is informed of all(!) potential choices and outcomes.
Unfortunately the world isn't that clear, so we get constrained choices.
The question then becomes are they 'internal' or 'external' constraints.
If they are external then they are not 'fair' and the choices made under
those constraints can't be called 'free' under any rational definition of
'free' or 'rational'.


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