Deregulation is not the same as free markets.

Economics Political Theory
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I have noticed that both the Democrats and the Republicans benefit from a general ignorance of free markets, and they are quite content doing so. One such point of ignorance is deregulation. Deregulation in practice has little to do with free markets. Further, “Freer” markets do not necessarily, in application, lead to a state of affairs similar to that under Free Markets. Consider the classic issue of price controls and prejudice. Government regulation shoves a wedge under the table leading people to be able to afford to indulge their prejudices. Consequently, another wedge is shoved in from the otherside in an attempt to level the table, that is, laws against discrimination. At this point, removing one or the other wedge would make the table inspire a horrific disgust in especially those who are forced to eat at it. As one can imagine, this constant shimming of the table makes it unstable and top heavy and only the tallest can reach the table to eat comfortably at it. The metaphor could be expanded further, but this is not my main point.

Along this model, suppose that the structure of regulations is illustrated as above.

Removing the blue regulation leads to a different set of affairs, but comparison to the free market has no validity. I need not necessarily assume that the free market is flat to make this argument, for if the free market is not the definition of flat (it is), then flat is unknowable precisely because of the stack of regulations and resultant distortions continues innumerably below – Hazlitt’s one lesson.

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Excellent point, and very interesting metaphor.

3

fascinating.

4

This seems to be very much like the immigration debate. How the deregulation to reach what state calls open borders would actually not lead to results that would happen in a free society, but perhaps even to its opposite.

Or my personal favorite, if your country is in a midst of a bloody war with a neighbouring aggressor state whose government is intent on say exterminating you all, it may not be a good time to start an AnCap revolution if it is going to destabilise your army and lead to the collapse of the front.

When I think about it, this may be the biggest aid to tyrants everywhere.

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Aide to tyrants.. you mean the way a set of regulations set up a kind of check-mate on removing any one of them?

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I mean the way it makes dismantling of the state much more tricky in the short term depending on the circumstances.

If you have a button that will dismantle your state`s army, will you press it? If you are an American which means that your country is really under no threat from the outside then you will.

But if you are an Iranian you probably are not going to, as by the time private aternatives come up to fill the vacuum the Empire may have taken over half your country.

So this problem has the power to in the short term and to a degree align your interests with that of your tyrant.