what is laissez faire capitalism 
in laissez faire capitalism companies could operate with a pure profit motive and not have to worry about government regulation or taxation this of course could create negative externalities and information asymmetries that can allow producers to behave as bad actors and get away with it proponents of laissez faire say that costly and exhaustive regulation is not needed since the market would weed out such bad actors in reality however bad actors may continue operating for a long while the bottom linelaissez faire refers to an economic theory opposed to government intervention in the market a central element of free market capitalism laissez faire posits that businesses and society as a whole are significantly better off without government involvement the idea dates back to 18th century france and is popular in countries with libertarian values in the present 