The slogan "free market" must be a tribal symbol for those of a certain persuasion to identify each other in the crowded corridors of humanity, like sports team colors.
A free market certainly has no basis in reality, at least not without considering the surreal real because the mind can think of it and attach a name to it.
Without a regulated market the powerful get away with not paying for the costs of making a profit. I was reminded of this simple fact once again with the New York Times editorial, "Washing Away the Fields of Iowa," published in today's paper.
The powerful dump these costs on the rest of us, to be paid out of our future earnings from other efforts ... by us, our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, ...
It's the cancer and heart disease from cigarettes, the loss of fishery habitat from the strip mining of mountain tops ...
Are you old enough to remember "Unsafe at Any Speed" and the changes that have been forced upon the automobile industry since? We would still be paying the costs of their profiting from dangerous vehicles if it weren't for regulation.
On the other hand, if you accept the surreal notion that a free market allows others to pay the costs of your profits ... then I will grant you that free markets do exist.
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