Right, Libertarians believe the free market is good because it allows for the market to determine things. You know, like monopolies! The market works REALLY well when there's no competition for a product, right? Oh wait, the extreme irony of libertarianism is that without government regulation of industry there IS no competition because eventually a single competitor can simply out compete, buy, or in other ways put their competition out of business which of course is bad for the consumer! I in fact lean libertarian, but generally find myself arguing with them on ideological grounds. When taken to it's ideological extreme it gets quite crazy, because in reality there are true needs for both private and public sectors; they compliment each other well, and do things better than the other. Anyway my favorite Monty Python skit really hits the nail on the head with Libertarianism:
We haven't had true free markets, now, have we? They were just free-er.
The Carnegie foundation cured polio.
Standard Oil built the aqueducts - nationwide. OK, pipes to carry oil, but of a similar scale.
Carnegie's and then JP Morgan's steel industries built the golden gate bridge and the empire state building, as well as most of NYC and Chicago and ...
But of course, government and private sector partnerships have been great. Corporations get protections from their competitors by the government. They pay good money for it.
Replacing monopolies with a government monopoly is no better - in fact worse. Have fun at the DMV next time you go. Or dealing with the IRS in a tax dispute.
A monopoly might be a barrier to entry for competitors, but it creates opportunity anyway. Whatever happened to the company with the buggy whip monopoly?
As a Libertarian, I am not an anarchist. I do believe there is a role for government in society. I just don't think they should be picking winners and losers, favoring certain businesses over others, subsidizing any private venture, etc. We need police and fire and courts and printed money and military to protect us, etc.