I must have been writing my previous reponse when you posted this but as I said earlier, I think the term gets used to try to establish the other person's position as a matter of "faith" or "belief" rather than a product of reasoning, whether or not there is any justification for that stance.Sueven wrote:Basically, people have varying degrees of belief regarding the quantity of problems that inherently exist in markets, and varying degrees of faith regarding the ability of the market system to solve these problems on its own. A market fundamentalist would be someone who feels that markets solve their own problems and that markets have very few problems in general, and believes this strongly.
The attitude can basically be captured by the idea "markets fix everything." It's someone who believes in the value and truth of economic theory to an extent even greater than most economists. It's significantly different, and more radical ideologically, than being a "fiscal conservative" or a "capitalist" and, taken alone, doesn't indicate much about where the individual falls on the American liberal/conservative dichotomy. It's a position that an extreme libertarian might take.
I don't know of many people that think markets are perfect, I certainly don't. But a fair number of people, myself included, think that they are the best mechanism for governing most economic activity. Also I'd just like to say that I am a pretty middle of the road libertarian.
