I've always considered this a very naive idea of how a free market works. It ignores how irrational and short-sighted humans can be, not to mention that many consumers are price sensitive.
A free market will not solve climate change as long as coal and fossil fuels are inexpensive.
A free market prioritizes one thing: Profit. That is all. A free market only solves problems when it is profitable to do so. Yeah, charities exist, but they typically aren't big enough to solve the big problems on a big scale.
This is an unbalanced opinion of free markets (but I generally agree with downsides of unregulated capitalism).
> Profit. That is all.
Free markets also have intense competition so "Profits" that you talk about don't just go out of control - Prices are set at the intersection of supply and demand curves. Companies would need to shave off profit margins to stay competitive.
I think it is fair to say that there are no ideal free markets. There are always asymmetries, downsides, side cashing and a whole bunch of complexities in any market - nothing is ideal.
So, we should have regulations that control those asymmetries.
A free market will not solve climate change as long as coal and fossil fuels are inexpensive.
A free market prioritizes one thing: Profit. That is all. A free market only solves problems when it is profitable to do so. Yeah, charities exist, but they typically aren't big enough to solve the big problems on a big scale.