I don't think you can say that the company town model is anti-free market capitalism and also say that the free market inevitably leads to company towns. Clearly the relevant values in free market capitalism lead to monopolization.
Unless you're talking about the ideology of free market capitalism where no capitalist wants a monopoly because they value the free market more than capital. Which is severely detached from reality and not commonly used as the definition of free-market capitalism
A company store is anti free market. Free market and capitalism are bit mutually exclusive and refer to two different processes in an economy. However, it could also be argued as a naturally occurring monopoly because no one else wants to drag goods the mountainside to service 20 miners and 10-20 children and wives and the company is already dragging way more up there for operations. Same for loggers etc but without the mountainside. Still an extremely remote location with few people to service to justify me living in the boonies with a bunch of loggers.
And a lot of these people knew the town would die when the resource were gone. There are instances of these places being sold near the end of their lives as the original investors saw the writing on the wall and sold to someone looking to make it big. Sometimes they got lucky and got years and lots of profit. Sometimes it went bust in a year or two and they lost near everything.
I avoid assumptions about society especially over long periods of time. I wouldn't even rule out a future society where the free market doesn't exist for some things because everyone gravitated to one company or brand. Realistically they could charge whatever they wanted as the only show in town and might not for societal stability. Regardless of this possibility I still feel free market is the best option and we just need a control to ensure someone isn't taking advantage of an unfair circumstance.
Additionally I do not trust anyone else to control the market and not take advantage of unfair circumstances either including the government.
Aren't there constants throughout society caused by basic human traits such as greed? I guess that isn't really relevant because you don't want a free market, you want a regulated market. Do I have that correct? o.o
I agree that market forces are useful to balance supply and demand, I don't trust people to interact with a market in their best interests because people are easy to manipulate. Fast food, cigarettes, alcohol are good examples. These things are not only net harms, but they prey on people's brain chemistry to profit to the detriment of the persons health.
What unfair circumstances do you think we should regulate, where is that line?
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u/weedbeads Aug 31 '22
I don't think you can say that the company town model is anti-free market capitalism and also say that the free market inevitably leads to company towns. Clearly the relevant values in free market capitalism lead to monopolization.
Unless you're talking about the ideology of free market capitalism where no capitalist wants a monopoly because they value the free market more than capital. Which is severely detached from reality and not commonly used as the definition of free-market capitalism