Theoretically yes.
But there are 2 main problems that frequently occur in a completely free market.
1. What is most *profitable* or *efficient* for the participants is not always the *best* outcome for the market or society.
2. Animal spirits prevail in markets.
But even if you disagree with these animal spirits, the most profitable route is to follow the herd but be ready to jump ship as soon as the market turns, thus leaving novices nursing the losses. Otherwise the market remains irrational longer than you can remain solvent. As per studies in the Economist.
That is not *advanced* capitalism. That is just *predatory* capitalism which needs regulation.
Those are not the worst problems with ‘free’ capitalist markets.
The top two biggest structural problems with ‘pure’ capitalist markets, especially those paired with western liberal democracy are:
1. State capture
2. Monopolistic behaviour
In the west, powerful individuals owns the press, often through complicated and opaque company ownership structures. And through the media, they wield massive power over politicians.
You also have legalised bribery in the forms of campaign contributions and delayed personal bribes paid through vastly inflated salaried board and similarly high rank no work positions in companies for officials after they leave office.
Just to round things off, most of the ‘expert external advisors’ governments frequently bring in to help guide or even draft key legislation are the same people who earn their living advising the rich and powerful on how to circumvent and/or hijack existing laws and policies. Makes you suspect that a lot of frankly incomprehensible lapses and loopholes that only exist for the super rich in western laws were features, not bugs.
With state capture, the rich and powerful can literally write laws to benefit themselves most and practice asset stripping on a national scale via ‘privatisation’ where state/national assets are sold pennies on the dollar to private individuals who can then extract colossal profits while any looses can be then passed back onto the state via bail outs and rescues once they have sucked those vital services dry. After the state has revitalised them through massive capital injections, the whole cycle can start anew.
That inevitably also leads to monopolies forming as the rich and powerful reach critical mass in their wealth hoarding, which in turn gives them more power to extra yet more profits from society.
That is why despite making unprecedented amounts of wealth as a nation the lives of the overwhelming majority of Americans are getting worse every year, because the rich and powerful are just seizing all more and more of the nation’s wealth for themselves and leaving the people to fight each other (often literally!) for the scraps.
