crac

Free markets, ???
It's just a device for certain players to enjoy and to increase inputs and outputs in that market or space where trading is allowed to operate., when it is.
Those players are designated as free to operate if they play by certain rules those trading arrangments are free to continue within certain limits and not outside them. If you are not a member it's not free, if you are not deemed of the right sort it's not free, if the price is higher then you can pay it's not free.
The value of everything is set by the market, that just makes bo&&&&ks of the idea of values.
Everyone knows that certain protectionist measures are esential to maintain national interests jobs, culture, quality of life. It's an established historical fact. Free markets are just a buzz word because politicians love to say the word free and attach it to anything, it makes people think they are giving something away.

On a more philosophical point since the planet from which all our energy and products come from gives them freely how then does society have the right to charge for them.

allanon

Because you don't get the energy for free. Resources have to be extracted, then processed then distributed.

crac

Wrong answer.

let me state the question again.

Since the planet gives everything we need freely how then does a person have the right to charge for it.

The answer, ''we have to process it'' is not the reason it is charged for, the reason is ''We have to profit from it''.

Well no one has the right to profit from something which should be free to all, and anyway they took it without asking.

Tell me who owns the river. who owns the sea, who owns that land.

Well they don't. They took it away from being freely available to anyone and kept others away by threat of violence and that is what they mean by ownership.

Don't worry, it's only philosophy, it can't really effect your life, can it????

allanon

I said nothing of profit; I said resources aren't turned into usable goods for free. That isn't a philosophical point; it is a point of fact. Oil can't be put straight into a car engine. It has to be extracted and processed and this takes the time and effort of people. Hence it is not 'free' as you try to portray it.

Argue about the labour theory of value versus marginal utility if you want; but don't pretend we live in a world where we can have exactly what we want without cost.

mkpdavies

I think commodities like oil are one of the few things where a tax is justified. Not too much mind, but the people who find it, process it etc deserve the major bulk of the profit, but they shouldn't be too unhappy that some tax is applied as they didn't make the raw materials, but took it from the planet. No one owns the planet as a whole, so I think we all deserve a portion of its resources.

__________________
http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/
http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/
http://lpuk.org

My ignore list

Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems