Discussion--Business happens at the market. In preindustrial times, farmers and tradesmen brought their good to the market to sell and to buy other needed supplies. In the industrial age, many of us went to the super market to buy groceries and other essentials, sometimes to the flea market to buy odds and ends.
In today's Internet economy, more and more business is happening in cyberspace. There's no need "to go" to the market, and the market is no longer limited by geography. With a browser for transportation, one can buy and sell worldwide without leaving the terminal or getting dressed for that matter. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen, but it has certainly put a new spin on the term market.
One new auction-related site derives its name from the term market. It is called mercata.com and attempts to change the rules by offering discounts the greater the number of people who bid on an item. Rather turns the old rules upside down when the more people who wanted an item the higher the market price generally was.
It is said we in the United States live in a free market where no central authority sets the rules. It's a capitalistic fairly stable society, although to watch our stock market of late it may be harder to believe than normal.
