Free markets as a moderate position - Ivo Vegter Daily Maverick

The misguided idea that free market advocates are on the side of big business is an endless frustration to me. Although they do not oppose business of any size in principle, free markets are usually not in the best interests of big business. They’d rather have protectionism. In that fact lies an important realisation.
Ordinary left-leaning liberals often describe themselves as moderate, because they advocate a balance between business for private profit, and government regulation designed to tax it and curb its excesses. Their stated aim is to protect the interests of the poor and the powerless, and redistribute at least some wealth from the haves to the have-nots. Their only question is how much to take.

You’ll often hear such leftists talk about “market fundamentalism”, as if advocacy of minimal government intervention in the markets can only be the view of extremists.

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