> This claim is contrary to common sense.
Common sense is often wrong. This is how we form new ideas. We look at existing common sense and discover the flaws, and that's part of how the world changes.
> If there are no IP protections, why would I write a novel?
Because no one else has written it and you have a story to tell. Are you a novelist? I feel like most novelists write primarily because they want to write, often despite it being unlikely to net much profit. This is like looking at open source software and saying "if someone could copy my code I would never write any code". Well, this may be true for you, but it is quite apparently not true for everyone. As someone who puts every engineering artifact of mine on github with a copyleft license, the idea that people will only do things if they can exercise IP restrictions is just comical to me.
> If I invent a widget, Walmart can use their established supply chains to build my widget for cheaper and distribute it wider than I ever could.
Walmart may or may not want to produce the thing. You may notice that there is a lot of open source hardware out there and walmart isn't producing it all, so obviously there are more criteria out there than "free designs exist". If it happens that they are well positioned to produce the item then it's probably good for everyone for them to produce it.
Think for example of the people in poorer countries who, through their government's agreement with the WTO to trade normalization laws, they are required to follow US patent laws. So if there is a piece of medical equipment like an MRI machine that is patented and costs one million dollars, those people will simply have to die of their illness because no one in their country could afford the patented machine. But if IP restrictions did not exist, then someone well suited to produce those machines could produce them for cheaper, to the medical benefit of people all over the world.
> Why would I put in all the work required to invent my widget only for some soulless corporation to profit from my labor?
Because the widget does not exist and you want it to. That's why I and so many other people contribute to open source.
> So we remake the global economic system... to remove the odium that accompanies pirating IP?
No, we remove the intellectual property restrictions generally spread across the globe over the last 30 years to end this government blockade on innovation that comes with an individual being able to claim rights over one idea. I assume you are not familiar with the story of 3D printers and how rapidly they spread only after the patents expired. 3D printers were patented in 1989, though two companies came up with the idea and were not able to resolve things until the early 1990's, when they agreed on terms and began selling the first machines for $50,000 in 1995. By 2008 the price had dropped to $25,000. In this time they sold 16,000 machines. Then the patents expired. Creators in Europe worked to make the first open source 3D printer which they got working just as the patents expired. This clearly demonstrates the folly of your assertion that engineers would not work without intellectual property restrictions, as these creative engineers did just that. There is something that animates us that is deeper than profit that does not require government manipulation of markets to facilitate. Over the next three years engineers all over the world worked on new designs, and by 2011 you could get a decent 3D printer for $2k. By 2018, there were hundreds of manufacturers all over the world, you could get a machine for $250, and a single company, Prusa, was shipping 6,000 printers a month. Their machine was all open source and their machines are still all open source to this day.
So printers went from $50k to $25k in the first 13 years under patent, and then $25,000 to $250 in the following ten years after patent. They went from shipping 16000 printers in 13 years to global volumes of 10k per month. So tell me, did more innovation occur before or after the patents expired? And given that two companies independently invented them and had to work out agreements before they could sell, I think it is fair to say that they could have taken off before 2008 if it had not been for the patents.
Remember, the sole purpose of a patent is to block would-be innovators from improving upon a patented design. This is like molasses for innovation. Patents do allow for securing large investments, but without patents we would see more frequent smaller investments to help innovators maintain first mover advantage and keep the market moving. The whole point is that free markets work fine without the massive market intervention that is government-secured monopoly on information.
Imagine if poorer nations could copy the designs for MRI machines? Then suitable machines would still be produced. You have to really study how open source 3D printers have developed to understand that the rules of innovation do not follow the old business school fairy tale that all innovation comes from big investors looking to create new IP. That just isn't the only way things work. And when you learn how all this other innovation occurs, you start to see how much of that is being squashed by IP restrictions.
> every single nation with a high standard of living has achieved it via free markets.
We could achieve a higher standard of living with freer markets not moderated by government decree that allows an individual to claim monopoly on information for 20 years or longer. It's funny that you mention free markets because the Mises Institute has multiple lectures about the way Intellectual Property harms capitalism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWShFz4d2RY
