free market essay

“More advantages than disadvantages” to what extent is this an accurate description of the free market economic system? In this essay I am going to explore some of the advantages and disadvantages of the free market economic system and create a conclusion to support or to not support the statement.
The first advantage of the free market is that consumers are faced with a wide range of choice, price and quality. Therefore there is no need for black markets as citizens are free to spend their money how they wish. This also means the successful are rewarded, giving people an incentive to work hard and be successful as there is a major fear of economic failure so is a major incentive for people to take jobs. In comparison to a planned market economy where black markets are a common issue for the government as people do not have a choice in how they spend their money so they have so result to illegally trading goods.
However in a free market economy choice is not available to all, people on high incomes have significantly more choice than people on low incomes. Meaning there is a greater risk of people on low incomes to die of starvation or disease. Nevertheless this does mean that people will thrive to do better in education and ultimately get a better education so they are not in the minority of people who have little choice or no choice. Yet there is help for the people who have little or no choice in the form of charities, charities are a good mechanism to help support those who have little or no choice in the economic system through no fault of their own due to disability or being orphaned. Although the worry with charity is that people will not donate enough resources through choice to support everyone who needs it.
A second advantage to the free market economic system is that firms have a strong incentive to innovate and produce high quality goods. This is because if they don’t they will be driven out of business by more efficient firms. It also means that