Round 2. dominusluciferi v Intrepid: The Market Price of Freedom

The topic for this debate is "Laissez Faire Capitalism is perfectly compatible with liberty and respect for human rights".

dominusluciferi will be arguing the pro position and will open the debate.
Intrepid will argue the con position.

Each debater will have one opening statement each. This will be followed by 3 alternating replies each. There will then be one closing statement each and no rebuttal.


There are no limits on the length of posts, but you may only use 1 post per turn.

Editing is strictly forbidden. For reasons of time, mod edits should not be expected except in critical situations


Opening and closing statements must not contain any images and must have no more than 3 references.

Excluding both the opening and closing statements, only two images and no more than 5 references can be included for each post. Each invidual post may contain up to 10 sentences of external source material, totaled from all external sources.
Links to multiple pages within a single domain count as 1 reference but there is a maximum of 3 individual links per reference, then further links from that domain count as a new reference. Excess quotes and excess links will be removed before judging.

The Socratic Debate Rule is in effect. Each debater may ask up to 5 questions in each post, except for in closing statements- no questions are permitted in closing statements. These questions should be clearly labeled as "Question 1, Question 2, etc.
When asked a question, a debater must give a straight forward answer in his next post. Explanations and qualifications to an answer are acceptable, but must be preceeded by a direct answer.

A new time limit policy is in effect
Each debate must post within 24 hours of the timestamp on the last post. If your opponent is late, you may post immediately without waiting for an announcement of turn forfeiture. If you are late, you may post late, unless your opponent has already posted.

Each debater is entitled to one extention of 24 hours. The request should be posted in this thread and is automatically granted- the 24 hour extention begins at the expiration of the previous deadline, not at the time of the extention request.

In the unlikely event that tardiness results in simultaneous posting by both debaters, the late post will be deleted unless it appears in its proper order in the thread.


Judging will be done by a panel of anonymous judges. After each debate is completed it will be locked and the judges will begin making their decision. One of the debate forum moderators will then make a final post announcing the winner.

I am pleased to join this tournament with so many worthy competitors involved. I'm enjoying your debates, I hope we can do the same for you.

Intrepid's opening.

"Laissez Faire Capitalism is perfectly compatible with liberty and respect for human rights".

To determine what exactly is being debated here we have to get to the base of the terms.

Laissez Faire Capitalism:

noun: the doctrine that government should not interfere in commercial affairs.

www.onelook.com...

Liberty(as it applies to this debate):

noun: personal freedom from servitude or confinement or oppression.

www.onelook.com...

Thus the topic could be summed up as, "The government should not be involved in the workings of the commercial world because this is compatible with human rights and personal freedoms from servitude, confinement or oppression of the individual."

I will point out that this is not only incorrect but the opposite, is vital for the government to be involved in commerce to ensure individuals have these rights and freedoms. There are forces at work, internally and externally that HAVE to be addressed by the gov't in the commercial world to provide stability so that these freedoms are assured.

We will look at the Law. We will look at emergency situations. We will look at the Market. We will look at trade agreements. We will boil this down to the basic elements, individual elements on rights and freedoms. Confinement and oppression.

I will leave it at that for now. dominusluciferi, you're up. I hope this debate takes off, I'm really looking forward to discussing this issue.

DominusLuciferi is disqualified for non-participation. Intrepid will advance.