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In biology, there is the concept of constraint, what physical and chemical laws impose on the possible direction of evolutionary change. Adam Smith came up with the idea of “the invisible hand of the market.” Using ideas from statistical mechanics, models have shown simple rules of exchange to be a possible valid constraint in economics. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with a so-called “free market.” A simple model always reaches an equilibrium of inequality in income distribution. One can argue that this is a toy model of a very complex system. Yet toy models can reveal underlying structure. The current and historic wealth distribution data show a similar structure but even worse inequality. One takeaway from this is that an individual will win or lose in a market not because of any latent talent but just dumb luck. This is an equilibrium model and any complex system will be far from equilibrium and complexity can perhaps mediate this dismal condition. A fair market would require a fair distribution of income which also favors individual human autonomy and heterogeneity. How to build this fair market? I have found nothing that touches on this, perhaps the writings of the late David Graeber are a start.

Chakrabarti, Bikas K., Anirban Chakraborti, Satya R. Chakravarty, and Arnab Chatterjee. Econophysics of Income and Wealth Distributions. 1st edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Shout out to https://mastodon.social/@marshall_0i for turning me onto Dan McShea.

Rosenberg, Alexander, and Daniel W. McShea. Philosophy of Biology: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy. New York, NY: Routledge, 2008.