I had a discussion with a Libertarian once. He told me that, under his system, companies wouldn’t be allowed to exploit workers. But, no enforcement mechanism.

I asked, “Who’s going to stop them? What if they’re the ONLY employer in an area? Workers can’t just leave.”

He said, “But they’re not ALLOWED to exploit workers!”

Well, okay then. That’ll stop ‘em.

Libertarianism/Objectivism could only work in a situation where everyone already had enough to eat, shelter, healthcare etc., so that nobody HAD TO have a job, because once you’re in a “have to” situation, your freedom to, for example, turn down a job where you think the conditions are unsafe, is essentially gone.

The problem comes with worship of the SYSTEM, rather than the goals. What’s the point of the market? To provide for the needs of the population, to encourage advancement of individuals and the society, to create wealth for individuals and the society. Okay, so Capitalism, of all the proposed economic systems, probably does that best. BUT left to itself, Capitalism inevitably concentrates wealth and that leads to exploitation of the less wealthy. So, you need to regulate it. A clear-eyed, objective analysis makes that obvious.

But if you worship The Free Market, you can’t accept that it’s not self-policing. And you’ve substituted BELIEF for KNOWLEDGE.