My european take on this: governments are the only entities that can keep companies in check.
A completely free, unregulated market is a bit like anarchy: it might work well if all of the actors were mature and aware of their responsibilities. Unfortunately the ones who wish for that the most are usually the ones least suited for it. They support these ideas not because of a noble goal of perfect freedom but because they are annoyed that there is a more powerful entity that gets in the way of what they want to do with/to others.
>They support these ideas not because of a noble goal of perfect freedom but because they are annoyed that there is a more powerful entity that gets in the way of what they want to do with/to others.
The problem with statements like this is that they are presently unfalsifiable. Even though you've stated it as fact, it's clearly only an opinion that you've arrived at based on your own perspective and experience. However, you can't prove it and nobody else can disprove it.
The general practice of extrapolating worst-possible motivation from every action is, in my opinion, one of the reasons why it's so hard to communicate rationally these days. If you envision everyone 'on the other side' of an argument as demons, maybe sub-human, why bother negotiating? Fuck 'em, maybe a meteor will strike and wipe them out or they will kill themselves off through one of their many vices.
Ironically the brain-reading capability discussed is that they might lay this bare, expose some of the incorrect asumptions and start to heal some of the relationships between cultures and people.
I would go a step further and say the only completely free and unregulated market is anarchy.
Take a regular state and strip away all those regulations about consumer protection, environment protection, substance abuse, contract enforcement etc, and stop all this socialist stuff like public healthcare, public unemployment insurance, and public roads, and you are left with is stateless anarchy. If you remove anything less you can always claim there's regulation and no truly free markets.
I'd rather see free market as fair playfield for all players. With clear rules that equally apply to each without special treatment. Wether written or not.
You could start with a minimum viable capitalistic state (enforcement of property rights and contacts through police and courts, some sort of government to update laws as necessary, taxes to pay for it all) and from there add basic infrastructure where competition is impractical, like roads, subsurface conduits for laying electricity and data lines, sewage systems, etc; investments that are beneficial to the overall economy but not rewarded by the market like parks, public transportation, and dams; things that ensure a good work force like public education (to supply educated workers) and public healthcare (to keep workers healthy and productive). Optionally you can add laws to improve the free market: consumers can't reliably judge food safety or environmental impact, so make the worst things illegal and improve transparency on the rest (food labeling etc), or impose taxes to mirror true costs to society.
All of this is a free market in your definition, and is essentially how European states are run. But it's somehow not what "free market" advocates in the US want today.
As a European, European countries have a tendency to have not-so-fair rules. Opaque taxation with lots of loopholes if you're willing and/or have resources to go for them. Very different taxation for employees and contractors with loose enforcement who is contractor and who is employee. (Partially) government owned companies participating in the market. Poorly run public purchases. Privatisation gone wrong in sectors where free market just doesn't work (e.g. energy last-mile).
On top of that, Euro side feels like having much much more regulations than US. Which causes it much easier for big companies, but hinder small businesses and upstarts. While technically it may count as free market, it feels like gatekeeping.
Dump trash or chemicals wherever it's most convenient, reduce product quality because of margins, read emails of dumb users who reuse their email-password for your social network site (Oh, wait a minute), work conditions that border on indentured servitude...
There's plenty of room at the bottom (as Feynman said in a completely different context).
I haven't seen the government stopping any of those, at least not consequentially.
Let's take a look at this one:
> Dump trash or chemicals wherever it's most convenient
To make these stop, government didn't show itself very fit at reducing the problem. How can this be changed? That's what I would find interesting to hear.
A completely free, unregulated market is a bit like anarchy: it might work well if all of the actors were mature and aware of their responsibilities. Unfortunately the ones who wish for that the most are usually the ones least suited for it. They support these ideas not because of a noble goal of perfect freedom but because they are annoyed that there is a more powerful entity that gets in the way of what they want to do with/to others.