 As will have become clear, some arguments for and against markets directly respond to one another, whereas others have to be weighed against one another without being directly compatible. Many thinkers acknowledge the force of at least some arguments from both sides. They take the line described in section 2 as “qualified endorsement” and argue for the market as one element within an institutional framework that can mitigate some of its more problematic effects. It should be kept in mind, however, that different markets can look very different with regard to the arguments listed above. This raises the question of whether it is possible at all to say something general about the value of “markets”, rather than about specific markets in specific situations. A common problem in the discussion about markets is the level of abstraction, as many abstract models make idealizing assumptions that do not hold in real life (see also Phillips  2008).[8]  While there is nothing wrong as such with using abstract models, it is important to consider their limited validity in real life instantiations. When comparing markets to other institutional solutions, the comparison has to take place at the same level of abstraction. Otherwise one compares apples to oranges, e.g., when a very imperfect market with great asymmetries of power is contrasted with an idealized public bureaucracy, or when a market in which all individuals are fully rational is contrasted with corrupt public institutions. It makes more sense to compare a reasonably well-functioning market with a reasonably well-functioning bureaucracy. 