Reflection on Free Marketplace

   The three quotes of Thomas Jefferson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Milton were all about how the Free Marketplace works. It supports the freedom of speech, like what John Milton said, “Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter”. Free marketplace of ideas looks like everyone can say anything toward a certain event, no matter true or false. Therefore, at the end of free marketplace, people may feel tired seeking truths. As there is too much information, people would have to judge everything before believing in it. Free marketplace is not practical, as it still has some problem.

However, I don’t believe in the idea of Free Marketplace. It can be compared to market economy system, which can be divided to three groups: pure market economy, pure command economy and mixed economy. Pure market economy is an economic system that is regulated by supplies and needs of producers and customers; pure command economy means that the economy of one country is totally controlled by the government. Both of these two systems cannot work ideally as they have a lot of problems. Therefore, government should play a leading role to regulate one’s economic system. Similarly, Free Marketplace is not practical either, as it still has some invisible problems.

Therefore, government also has its rights to censor some sort of information in order to ensure the peace and development of a country. For example, a couple of week before, Chinese government censored the news of the absence of the vice president, and told to the public that he was fine. Although none knew the truth completely, I believe Chinese government did great in protecting the privacy of the country. Otherwise, many terrorists may have some action that will make the country chaotic.