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Because Bill Gates is richer than I am the free market does not exist

That is the remarkable claim from the Senior Lecturer today:

Free markets, if they were to exist are dependent upon everyone having equal access to capital, the market and information. Unless that happens economic theory is quite explicit about the fact that, first of all, free markets do not exist and, second, abuse of markets is taking place.

Bill Gates has greater access to capital than I do. Therefore free markets do not exist.

I would love to see where economic theory is explicit about that. And of course Ritchie will be able to show us all, he does after all teach economics in a British university and we do not.

Right?

21 thoughts on “Because Bill Gates is richer than I am the free market does not exist”

  1. Does getting a job at a University because your mate works there count as abuse of markets? Or is that only an abuse when capitalists and neoliberals do it? From what I heard the only impressive thing about his interview was his self-aggrandisement

  2. Does Marxism count as an economic theory?
    I’m not an expert but I think you could bend the wisdom of comrade Karl into what the senior lecturer is saying here.

  3. How long can it be before the set texts at City economics become only the Courageous State and the Joy of Tax (plus any other seminal works yet to be published by the Tater) and the standard texts metaphorically burnt in a Fahrenheit 451 epiphany?

    Any students caught reading other books will receive a note from the Prof

    “That was your last visit – your time here is at an end”

  4. I have access to capital. Gates HAS capital.

    Anyone with a good business plan can get capital; but others will be the judge of the plan. The Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.

    Access is NOT a problem.

  5. The Unused Testicle

    Is that all markets?

    So all markets are fucked?

    On the basis that there have always been some rich and some poor people, no markets have ever worked in human history?

    Wow. Just wow.

  6. He increasingly sounds to me like someone undergoing a mental breakdown. If so, to “stupid, ignorant, malevolent bastard” you can add “poor soul”.

  7. Reverse engineering it, Richard’s worried about outcome, and he has one in mind that he’d like to get to. The ‘free’ market which leaves actors alone to figure out the exchange of resources is problematic because it has lead to outcomes that aren’t of the Richard approved type ™
    Richard figures if everyone has exactly the same inputs the outcome wouldn’t vary too much so….so… (get ready for the leap) so “free” can no longer be allowed to refer to the actors being left alone to get on with it. “Free” must and can only mean that they all have exactly the same inputs.

    Richard expects us to put aside that the whole point and utility of markets is to match up differing and unequal inputs, with the current use of “free” denoting no artificial impediments in the actors to allow them to do that as efficiently as possible according to their diverse means and desires.

  8. @hallowed, two further changes are required :
    Means =available resources
    Desires =needs

    Snippa determines both your needs and how much of your resource pool should be used in any transaction

  9. Diogenes=
    edits accepted.
    but what’s really, well i don’t know if it’s worrying per se, just downright wierd is the tendency to just commandeer new meanings in order to shoehorn current terminology to his fag packet derriere murphanomics.

  10. He is profoundly thick. So thick he cannot grasp that he is thick.

    Whenever I see his red piggy face, I’m reminded of a quote from Allan Clark about looking like a man with a pineapple shoved up his arse.

  11. Andy: …looking like a man with a pineapple shoved up his arse

    Given that by all accounts his fundament is the cradle of much of Elynomics, then a mere pineapple would pine for companionship where a generous hamper of fruit, both fresh and crystalised (for Christmas) would find lavish accommodation with space to spare for the wicker container, pips, stones, peel and so forth.

    A man who can single-handedly represent an obesity epidemic is a chap whose embonpoint will scarcely register the insertion of an extraneous pineapple.

    But I take your point.

  12. So Much For Subtlety

    Well in fairness to the Spudman, I have often thought that Tom Brady is not only a gifted athlete with a fine work ethic, but he also goes home every night to a full-on genuine supermodel.

    Therefore God does not exist.

  13. @hallowed, the University allows it. He does little teaching but drags in EU grant money. A degree from City must be equivalent to an o-level

  14. Graeme says:
    November 6 2017 at 9:29 pm
    I thought the Queen was head of state of many of those tax havens.

    However, given that you keep telling us that government spending is not determined by tax, wouldn’t it be easier to reach for equality by creating money and distributing it via the tax code to ensure everyone had equal resources? I am sure I must be overlooking something otherwise you would have suggested it before. I am sure you will expose the gaping flaw in my thinking, as you always manage to do. It is difficult to keep up with you, sometimes, Richard.

    Reply
    Richard Murphy says:
    November 6 2017 at 10:04 pm
    Inflation

    In a word

    Tax exists to control it

  15. Bloke in Costa Rica

    Diogenes, a degree that Murphy has had any hand in should rightfully be as big a blot on one’s CV as a stretch for kiddie fiddling.

  16. If an idiot called Anita can raise north of $250k on kick starter just to play computer games and then proceed to under deliver on the promise of videos explaining the results of said computer game playing, then I would have thought Richitie with his sensible ideas would have no problem raise capital for a business venture.

    Unless I am misunderstanding something….

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