Because the free market generates the information needed for efficient operation from its own internal processes, rather than from predetermined blueprints of central planners, it is impossible to foretell or imagine in advance precisely what structures and institutions would develop in such a system. Even if a free market existed in one country, we could not extrapolate accurately from that country to other countries, because a free society might develop different kinds of institutions in different countries, depending on geographical and other circumstances. We can predict with certainty only that those structures and institutions that evolve will be planned and developed by individuals in order to attain their ends as effectively and efficiently as possible. Beyond this general principle, we can offer only some educated guesses.

Since human beings are not omniscient, mistakes will be made in any system, including the free market. But only the free market enables human beings to acquire in an optimal manner the information necessary to minimize their errors. As we saw in Section 4, any error in the free market immediately creates a profit opportunity for anyone who has the ability to recognize it; as quickly as that opportunity is exploited, the error is corrected (pp. 4.10:15-24). Any attempt to "improve" the market by intervention can only impede this process. Thus we can say that the free market is efficient, in the only practically meaningful sense of the word.