“Question from an an-com: ‘free markets lead to tyranny’ Example: a land lady who owns several rental properties on a street, wants to buy another that has come up on the market. She doesn’t want to pay the asking price, so she puts “for sale” boards on all her properties, with no intention of selling them, just to depress the house prices in the area. The argument goes that people with capital, can use their economic power to build a monopoly.”
No individual or entity exists in a vacuum. An individual who attempts to falsely manipulate prices to the detriment of others will inevitably be exposed and word will spread. When this occurs, public slander and economic ostracism resulting in a tarnished reputation would punish anyone attempting such mendacity.
The idea that the wealthy harm the less fortunate and exacerbate their poverty is the perniciously self-destructive ideology of covetousness. It serves nothing and nobody to look to another man’s success and proclaim him not deserving of his wealth, if he has earned it in the market place through voluntary interactions. On the contrary not only has he legitimately earned his wealth, but he is thoroughly benefiting his community by his having acquired it.
The wealthy provide jobs to people around them, invest in large corporations and small start-ups, and provide the capital needed for entrepreneurs to take out a loan to open their business. The poor are genuinely helped by the wealthy that move next door. This is how opportunities are created. This is how standards of living rise. It is not the opportunities that improve a man’s life, but rather the smoldering desire to improve his lot through the sweat of his brow and painstaking dedication. The poor man must first make the choice to improve his life through his own perseverance. After that choice is made no force is powerful enough to stand in his way
