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This is what we are heading towards now--away from free market capitalism towards a neoliberal oligarchy, just like in the Guilded Age of the 19th century.
Don't confuse free market capitalism with laissez fair capitalism. Free markets actually require regulation.
Yeah, I agree with you there. Thanks to the slow roll back of regulations in the name of "capitalism" that started with Reagan.
What is the free in free market supposed to represent, if not freedom from government oversight?
I suppose folks can dream. But if the rich had hearts, they wouldn't be rich for long. Wealth on the order that the wealthy in America have tends to come from exploitation, so even in their philanthropy there is often an air of disdain. But such is life in a world in which the Prince of the Power of the Air has temporary custody.
I assume you are being ironic. Free markets were defined in The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, who is considered to be the father of modern economics. His book was published (coincidentally) in 1776 and sets forth three conditions for a free market, which off the top of my head can be summarized as follows;
I wasn't being ironic, more often when I encounter people spouting off about free markets they're either idolizing Friedman or "objectivists", rather than talking about market economies described by Smith. Your definition would present the most likely ideal economy, but points 2 and 3 are likely unachievable without some measure of more or less socialist intervention since most participants are at the mercy of their employers who prefer to suppress information about prices(especially when those prices take the form of wages) and are inherently unequal in market power.
You can’t answer what your own standard is? Ok.
You can't. You asked the question. I never said anything about it. I was only talking about the OP.
I suppose that might push things in the right direction, but I fear that would only lead to token acceptance and more likely lead to income tax raises that land more on small business owners than the billionare caste.
Hence why I asked it again.
i didn't bring it up, YOU DID. I said I don't know. Now you are goading.
I came from a communist country. It does not work and will not work anywhere. The ideology is beautiful but the execution and reality sucks.
Cause no one reads them?One might also ask why the Gospel needs to be preached when there is a free Bible in every motel room.
There's actually two definitions of communism: one that's available for public consumption and the other that's only available to its executors.
That is a change that somehow happened in the early 1900s. The very wealthy changed their appearance from robber barons to social benefactors. I don't know why or how (and in many ways it was only a matter of appearance).
