[ExI] Belief in Market Efficiency

[Fred C. Moulton]

On Sun, 2009-02-01 at 20:13 +0100, painlord2k at libero.it wrote:

> 
> So, apparently not only the "civilized", "free market traders" used the
> slavery, but also the uncivilized.

As has already been pointed out if there is slavery then there is not a
free market.

Slavery is a serious problem and still exists in several places in the
world.  The last slavery prosecution in the USA was during the 1950s.
So I think that using slavery as a club to attack the concept of free
markets is both intellectually indefensible and frankly sickening.

And on the flip side to imply that anyone suggesting any sort of market
regulation is one step from Stalinist labor camps is just as wrong.

This is the Extropian list where I would expect a higher level of
discourse to prevail.  But recently I have seen messages which would
embarrass even a bunch of drunken college sophomores.

I urge everyone to do better; it is already February so maybe we can
make the rest of 2009 a better year for this list.

Fred

P.S. My apologies to drunken college sophomores everywhere if I impugned
your character in this message.