I wonder whether christopherj & you might be using “to work” in different senses here. A market might be able “to work” in the sense of being operational (where sellers successfully sell things to buyers) while failing “to work” in the sense of generating benefits greater than the side effects of externalities (the invisible foot’s kick overriding the more benign gestures of the invisible hand).
I use “work” here not in the sense that the markets are operational. I use it in the sense that societies with working markets (and without “massive … product-specific tariffs and subsidies”) develop and grow much faster than societies without working markets. That is an empirical observation.
I wonder whether christopherj & you might be using “to work” in different senses here. A market might be able “to work” in the sense of being operational (where sellers successfully sell things to buyers) while failing “to work” in the sense of generating benefits greater than the side effects of externalities (the invisible foot’s kick overriding the more benign gestures of the invisible hand).
I use “work” here not in the sense that the markets are operational. I use it in the sense that societies with working markets (and without “massive … product-specific tariffs and subsidies”) develop and grow much faster than societies without working markets. That is an empirical observation.