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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

The libertarian economics of CrossFit

How CrossFit is an experiment in libertarian economics - Liam Mannix, BRW:

November 10, 2014 - "In CrossFit’s laissez-faire free market, there are no rules, the strong prosper, the meek do not inherit anything and are destroyed. The fitness craze, booming in Australia and around the world, is American founder Greg ­Glassman’s grand experiment in lib­ertarian economics.

"The barriers to entry are absurdly low. Gaining a CrossFit licence costs as little as $500 a year, despite membership fees costing up to $60 a week. Training courses cost around $US1000 ($1158). The gyms themselves – CrossFitters prefer the utilitarian term 'box' – don’t require expensive equipment such as treadmills or cross-trainers.

"'You set it up however you want, you run it however you want, you teach whatever you want – carte blanche,' says CrossFit Brisbane co-owner Wendy Swift. 'The free-market model is such that they believe the good coaches, good gyms will thrive, and the poor coaches, poor gyms will go out of business. ­Simple as that.'

"Glassman is a scholar of economists Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek and a self-described 'rabid libertarian'. The empire he has built is largely open-source – workouts are released daily on the web by CrossFit’s central website, and user-made and customised workouts are contributed and shared online by CrossFit’s huge following."

Read more: http://www.brw.com.au/p/entrepreneurs/how_crossfit_is_an_experiment_in_p1jMLUwEskVbtvTzxuee0O
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