I've been searching for a quote by an Austrian/free-market economist that provides a definition/explanation of the concept of markets. The quote will be included in a paper I'm in the process of writing, and will preferably emphasize the fact that markets are about much more than just money and monetary phenomena. Any help is greatly appreciated.
I'll give it a try since I think of myself as having the most freedom oriented personal philosophy (Austrian) of just about anybody I know.
A market is a place where buyers and sellers are not completely prohibited by the force of some third party from exchanging goods and services on mutually agreeable terms for mutual benefit.
For example: I want a car for around $20000. I am under no compulsion to buy (Except by whatever contract I agreed to previously.) and you are under no compulsion to sell, And I want the car you are selling more than $20,000 and you want $20000 more than the car. So if I give you $20000 and you give me the car then we are both better off.
This is interesting. Does the term "Market" immediately imply "(free) market"?
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MatthewWilliam: This is interesting. Does the term "Market" immediately imply "(free) market"?
The term shouldn't imply a free market. What's wrong with the Wikipedia definition?A market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange things.
I agree that the term need not and does not imply a market free from intervention.
The assumption/contention that I'd like to respond to with a quote is that markets are simply about profit and loss as related to money. For example, the thinker I am writing about employs the term "market incentives" as a euphemism for a fee. He has an extremely shallow view of what economics and markets are all about. That was why I asked for a quote from an Austrian that would provide a broader, richer perspective.
The Wikipedia definition is a good starting point.
Just don't know. What I know is that a market is a system of exchanges, and that presupposes private property. It's not about profit and loss in a monetary sense, it's all about personal prefences (values). From this idea, you can find plenty of quotes from Mises, for example. So then, talking about "market incentives" has no meaning at all.
The market is the collection of all trade activity. By definition, coercive interactions are not part of the market. Money doesn't have to be part of it. Money is simply an emergent form of barter (historically speaking, that is). You can trade other things, like goods directly, or services for goods, or services for services.
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