Interplanetary Markets | Free market capitalism | Economics
Radical Markets is a book (and a movement) by Eric Posner and Glen Weyl that proposes radical redesigns of market mechanisms to address inequality, stagnation, and political dysfunction.
The core thesis: markets are powerful but currently structured to benefit incumbents and concentrate wealth. By redesigning the rules of markets (not abandoning them), we can create systems that are both more efficient and more equitable.
The big ideas:
COST (Common Ownership Self-Assessed Tax) â what if you had to publicly declare a price for everything you own, pay a tax on that value, and anyone could buy it from you at your stated price? This eliminates the hoarding problem. Radical, but it would make markets far more liquid and efficient.
Quadratic Voting â instead of one person one vote, everyone gets a budget of âvoice credits.â You can spread them across issues or concentrate them on what you care about most. This captures intensity of preference, not just direction.
Visa markets â let citizens sponsor immigrants and share in the economic gains of migration. This could dramatically increase immigration (which economists broadly agree creates wealth) while distributing benefits more widely.
Data as labor â your data creates value for tech companies. Instead of giving it away for free, what if your data contributions were treated as labor and compensated accordingly?
These ideas are deliberately provocative â thought experiments about how markets could work if redesigned from first principles.
Related: Free market capitalism, game theory, Descentralized Finance, Politics