How the dumb profit from free markets

We often hear that free markets will exploit the dumb and government needs to step in and regulate markets for consumer safety. I hope to be able to convince you otherwise.

Lets say I want to buy a PC and I dont know at all how it works. I have no idea which hardware is good and I am completely unable to determine a fair price for a computer. I am also too lazy to do some research or read user reviews. I am basically the most naive customer possible.

Now I walk into an electronics shop, tell someone I want a PC and have X $ to spend. Of course I will not get a great deal, but the magic is that I will get a computer and it will work.

I know we all will get much better deals for our $, but even the most stupid type of customer will at least get an okay deal. Without any help of the government "protecting" the customer form the evil corporations.

Why is that the case? It is market competition. While there are very stupid customers there are also smart customers. And the corporations are competing for these. Because smart customers exist, there are good deals out there and these good deals also benefit the customers that have no idea what they are actually buying. This is the magic of the markets.

I used to make a lot of fun about people searching for shops where they can be their milk 1 cent cheaper. Now I thank them. Due to their work I can go into almost any shop I want and by milk and not be ripped of.

While it is quite intuitive for shopping, it also applies to many other areas. Insurance are on example if they are competing in a free market. Sure a lot of people wont know what they sign up for. But there are customers that do and these set the price levels.

So to sum up, I think customer protection by our beloved government is a myth. The government simply needs to get out of the way. As long as there are some people that understand the markets, the stupid are already protected. If anything regulations hurt healthy competition and lead to everyone, the smart and the stupid alike, getting a worse deal.