The free market does, in fact, solve the establishment of education and can provide it at a reasonable price, as the competition of the marketplace is what drives up sales and profits. E.g. the oldest schools in the US are still some of the top schools in the world and were started by private and/or religious organizations. There are also several developing organizations providing free private education in the US: Free Schools | PrivateSchoolReview.com , Private School May Be Free If You Make Less Than $75,000 | PrivateSchoolReview.com , 8 Colleges Where Students Attend For Free, etc.
Additionally, when a government is coercing people to attend school, it forces education to lose its ‘value.’ A high school diploma means little-to-nothing anymore in the US because so many people have them. This has become such an issue that most employers do not actually check if someone actually has a high school diploma when they check yes in the degree box. Another important principle is that if something “good” is being forced on people, or people are being coerced to do, the good that is done is negated because something done well requires free and voluntary action, not coercion.
Laissez Faire Capitalism has NOT been tried in the US, and I am sad to say that it has not been fully implemented in any country-wide economy. What has been tried is near-Capitalism, where there are mixed economies and approaches to attempt more market freedom. What we do know is that the closer we are allowed to move towards Capitalism, the better off the majority of people are, and in the long run everyone is better off.
Monopolies come in four main categories, not just one. There are geographic monopolies, where simply due to their location almost everyone purchases from the supplier; technological monopolies are where an organization excels in technological advancements when compared to their competitors, and this gives them the edge for monopolizing the marketplace; natural monopolies are completely free and voluntary, there just are not any direct competitors yet in the market; lastly, government monopolies are coercive powers that only exist because of government influences and protection by government with the threat of fines, prison, garnishments, removal of property, and up to death for those that dare to compete against the coercive monopoly assisted by government. This is important to distinguish, because Laissez Faire Capitalism, in its very philosophy, does not allow coercion as that is the antithesis of Justice. Furthermore, government, itself, is a coercive monopoly as it has monopolized the initiation of force and coercion.
Socialism and Communism are contradictory to Justice as they pontificate that free and voluntary exchanges between people cannot be conducted, i.e. via Laissez Faire Capitalism, while a select few of the political elite who run the Marxist government institution determines who the winners and losers are through arbitrary means. These same people will say in one sentence that [coercive] monopolies are bad, and then turn around and say government should control the marketplace. That is, by its definition, a coercive monopoly.
In response to your pointing out of child labor in the US, please note that it is a “privilege” for children to not work hard labor, not a moral stance. The nature of mankind, when born in nature, is without clothing, with little food primarily from one’s mother (hopefully), with no shelter except that of the voluntary guardian (hopefully), no weapons, inability to walk or talk, etc. We are born helpless, and our state at birth is that of extreme poverty. The US, and other European countries, moved towards not having children in the labor force for multiple reasons. One, because it was not financially necessary for everyone to have their children working because they had better-paying jobs that enabled them, primarily men, to provide for their families’ needs and some desires. Two, many of the labor laws against child labor were directed towards Blacks and other low socioeconomic minorities within the US to prevent them from gaining political and financial leverage in the US. Three, social pressure from those in society were disappointed in seeing that the significant primary provider of child labor was not the private marketplace, but in fact, government sending orphans to work in factories in order to fund their housing, staff pay, food, clothing, etc. especially for the orphans themselves. Today, there are still a number of countries that have child laborers, but they are mostly in developing countries, which points back to my original premise of the “privilege” of not needing child laborers.
As for your erroneous comparison of the US to Norway, let’s take a look at a few facts first. I will begin by stating it is very difficult and fallacious to compare these two countries. Also, there are, of course, major limitations in Norway that come along with having a major Welfare State: The Nordic Glass Ceiling . Nevertheless, Norway has an almost similar economic freedom as the US. Norway’s financial success comes mostly from the private market sells of oil. Norway’s population consists of a homogeneous society with similar ideas, views, and philosophy; whereas the US is far more diverse, and the US has a higher per capita GDP. The enjoyment of life in the US is far greater, overall, than in Norway. Additionally, Norway does not have the utopian system that you seem to be alluding to. The heterogeneous character of the US is what helps it drive forward in the world, providing a superior and diverse competitive market, especially when compared to Norway. This also prevents a true cross-comparison of the two countries, as they are not even similar- it is a false equivalence logical fallacy.
