Eric A. Posner

E Glen Weyl

Revealing bold new ways to structure markets for the good of everyone, this book shows how the emancipatory force of genuinely open, free, and competitive markets can reawaken the dormant 19th-century spirit of liberal reform and lead to greater equality, prosperity, and cooperation.

Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society

Radical Markets

E. Glen Weyl

Revolutionary ideas on how to use markets to bring about fairness and prosperity for all Many blame today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability on the free market. The solution is to rein in the market, right? Radical Markets turns this thinking—and pretty much all conventional thinking about markets, both for and against—on its head. The book reveals bold new ways to organize markets for the good of everyone. It shows how the emancipatory force of genuinely open, free, and competitive markets can reawaken the dormant nineteenth-century spirit of liberal reform and lead to greater equality, prosperity, and cooperation. Eric Posner and Glen Weyl demonstrate why private property is inherently monopolistic, and how we would all be better off if private ownership were converted into a public auction for public benefit. They show how the principle of one person, one vote inhibits democracy, suggesting instead an ingenious way for voters to effectively influence the issues that matter most to them. They argue that every citizen of a host country should benefit from immigration—not just migrants and their capitalist employers. They propose leveraging antitrust laws to liberate markets from the grip of institutional investors and creating a data labor movement to force digital monopolies to compensate people for their electronic data. Only by radically expanding the scope of markets can we reduce inequality, restore robust economic growth, and resolve political conflicts. But to do that, we must replace our most sacred institutions with truly free and open competition—Radical Markets shows how.

Keven Wang

Omar Fernandez

I read this book as a way to instill new ideas, spark new thinking, and not as a realistic or pragmatic guide to solve problems. I like most of the ideas, but they are presented, purposefully, in a radical or visionary way that seems far too out there for it to be realistic. Because of this, it is at times easy to fall back into reading it purely as a theoretical/interesting thought experiment and not critically to consider how we might implement some of the ideas. 



That said, I think the concepts and ideas will resonate. In particular, finding creative ways to redistribute voting power in a way that actually reflects people's passions, similar to a market, and it's not simply binary voting (yes/no) where each person counts as one. The ideas exposed are interesting in that regard. 



I also enjoyed the discussions around private property and how we might rethink it, particularly for land which is so limited and often its private ownership can truly hinder development of great goods for society. I have long been thinking about the problem of land ownership in places with high demand and loved the concepts explored in this book. However, I also think that there's something terribly unsettling of moving from our current model to one in which anyone might bid and buy your place immediately if they are willing to pay the price you've reported your place to be valued at. While I like the direct link between the price you post & your taxes, to eliminate gaming the tax system, I don't think that just because someone else can afford to pay that price and wants it you should have to move out right away. It puts the long-term security, particularly of the retired with modest income, at the mercy of rich buyers. 



Overall, I give this 4 stars because of the interesting ideas discussed and the many benefits to society as a whole. However, I do think that for me to be more excited about the ideas I'd need a more pragmatic view of how the ideas would be introduced in a way that don't create chaos and unintended consequences that hurt vulnerable sectors of society.

Radical Markets Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society

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