I believe this is a no true scotsman fallacy, the very same that people make when claiming Stalin wasn't a communist.
I would posit that truly free markets only exist on paper, in the real world the people that acquire enough capital will always use said capital to distort markets in their favor. Why wouldn't you?
It is the inevitable outcome of the system.
It's only an inevitable outcome if you enable people to acquire enough capital to distort markets in their favor. But this is not something inherent in the notion of the free market itself - rather, it is driven by the property rights arrangement, which is actually somewhat orthogonal to free markets. Where government exists in the first place, its monopoly on violence essentially means that property rights are that which said government recognizes as such and uses force to protect, if necessary. It doesn't have to protect arbitrary accumulation of capital, though.
i guess in my mind, the less a government meddles with the market, the better. Unless it’s with the intention of eliminating scams and enforcing fairness in the buying and selling process - regardless of race or your status.
But i do agree that in practice, we rarely see governments try a truly free market.
I believe corruption is an inherent feature of a system that lets individuals acquire outsized proportions of wealth.
Even if the market was initially completely free, as soon as anybody reaches the threshold of being able to bribe/lobby decision makers to tilt the market in their favor, that's what's gonna happen.
To me, a free market is at best an unstable temporary state - not something you can plan societies around.
The less the government meddles the better – except for at least two very deep classes of meddling? I mean I definitely agree that society should protect what you mention - so maybe the “free market” frame isn’t really useful enough.
I’m mainly against the term because it’s a banner idea of the neoliberal revolutionaries that got us into a lot of these messes, by crushing collective action and giving so much power to capital. Actually existing “free markets” are a big part of the positive feedback system of capital accumulation.
The meddling i suggest is merely to make the market fair. It removes bad actors that are intentionally trying to hurt true price discovery.
Someone selling a home with major issues, and trying to hide those issues for passing inspection, is clearly just a scammer.
So yes - i’m talking about a free market where there are honest actors. Not completely free. I do see the difference, but that’s splitting hairs imo.
It's an outcome of the way money is structured.
Debtors borrow. They get money and spend it. The person holding the money gets paid to not return it (interest). It's like the system is maximally stupid and designed to exacerbate wealth inequality.
The fungibility argument is bullshit here and just serves to obscure. Let's say 10% of money holders refuse to return the money, then 10% of borrowers are screwed. The borrowers can play a game of musical chairs to "decide" who is going to get screwed, but it doesn't change that 10% get screwed.
Oh and the best part? You can't escape money, because it's like a public utility and even if you come up with an alternative, you'll still have to pay taxes, in money. Meaning that money is not just a monopoly, it's inescapable.