Free Markets?

In very real terms, there are very few free markets. This is so because most markets are controlled or manipulated by companies and individuals who hold resources key to the same markets. The manipulations mean more wealth and power for them, less for others.

Americans have been told and sold the idea that free markets are key to capitalism. This may be true, but we wouldn’t know it because markets are basically not free in our system of governance and capitalism.

It is true that pricing matters considerably in purchase decisions, and sale as well. But these are instant moments in a transaction’s history, rarely a function of market. Many aspects influence value of things, people and processes. The confluence – or not – of these influences mix and dance around the transaction. Buyer and seller decide on the transaction – to do or not – based on instant influences: space, location, appearance, desire of others for the same transaction, function, history, promise for the future, and others.

If a monarch or dictator defines the rules of a transaction, that is not free markets working. If someone holds an asset off the market to raise its value, that is not a free market thing. Government controlling a process and its discoveries creates monopolies, not free markets. Let’s take a closer look at that.

Research done at universities is something of extreme value. It is done there because of the infrastructure needed to conduct the work. Countless academicians, researchers, facilities and equipment are necessary to do the work. An overhead of these items is needed to be available for any research project. Just building up that infrastructure is cost prohibitive for most people and corporations. Government sees the value of the work to be done, funds it in great part, and then others may purchase the knowledge and results produced by the research. This becomes big business over time.

Corporations do research for their own competitive advantage, but often it is too costly for them to perform. They partner with government and universities to gain access to the research process and its discoveries.

Government may manipulate its power over researchers/universities for any reason it deems valuable. Today, research universities are being denied major funding grants based on unrelated issues. Civil rights ideology not agreeable to a politician like Trump? Defund the universities research. Manipulate policies and restore funding? What kind of knowledge base are we creating here? Or demeaning, or destroying?

Funding for medical research is huge. It affects all of us and our lives. Technology research makes new products and services possible for all of us. Kill the research and we limit our technological abilities.

All research affects the content of education. We understand the world, its past and present differently through research. Age old conundrums are answered by research. Fresh ideas and inventions are created through research. That is a prime function of any college or university. To be able to teach, one must learn, and research is a primary tool of that learning. Expanding the frontiers of knowledge is the function of an educational institution.

Today, the White House is targeting specific institutions and their research grants based solely on ideology, not research topics. Perhaps this is the core example of a free market being destroyed.

Free markets come in different shapes if they are present at all.

April 14, 2025

 

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