Americans losing faith in "free markets" (companies, leader, economy)

[ParkTwain]

Interesting article (July 16, 2008) in L.A. Times. Remember what I've been posting on this board for about 12 MONTHS?

Americans may be losing faith in free markets - Los Angeles Times

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Spurred by the continued housing crisis, turmoil in financial markets, spiking oil prices, disappearing jobs and shrinking retirement savings, the nation and its political leaders have begun to sour on the notion that the current market system is the key to a fair, stable and efficient society.
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[TXboomerang]

Lol, if people are losing faith in free markets due to the current turmoil, maybe they should figure out what a free market is. America does not have one. Price controls, subsidies, and government bailouts/intervention does not fit into true free market definitions in anyway. What we have is an illusion. We have a government run capitalist economy, a soft form of fascism. While I find it better than socialism in general, it has plenty of faults.

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by TXboomerang

We have a government run capitalist economy.

I dunno. I think the problem is more to Big Business having too much influence over Big Government, rather than the reverse.

[evilnewbie]

I think the point is to separate Big Business from Government... so that the two can't collude... that is a free market... right now it is NOT a free market when government is telling companies what to do and the companies asking the government for taxpayer money to do it...

[Miker2069]

Originally Posted by TXboomerang

Lol, if people are losing faith in free markets due to the current turmoil, maybe they should figure out what a free market is. America does not have one. Price controls, subsidies, and government bailouts/intervention does not fit into true free market definitions in anyway. What we have is an illusion. We have a government run capitalist economy, a soft form of fascism. While I find it better than socialism in general, it has plenty of faults.

Hmm, not sure I agree with you on that one. True you can't just go out, start a business, and then hire 100 12 years and pay them $1/hr to do the job (oh yeah we outsource that to "3rd world countries...) there are controls in place to prevent exploitation.

I do believe that for the most part we have a pretty free market economy. If the market. The market will determine if the biz succeeds or flops.

I do agree such things as agriculture isn't necessarily conforming to that definition, and yes there's a lot of grey area there. Overall though I think we have a pretty good system, and my beef is that I want the tax burden lowered even further to encourage further business development.

[TXboomerang]

Originally Posted by Miker2069

Hmm, not sure I agree with you on that one. True you can't just go out, start a business, and then hire 100 12 years and pay them $1/hr to do the job (oh yeah we outsource that to "3rd world countries...) there are controls in place to prevent exploitation.

I do believe that for the most part we have a pretty free market economy. If the market. The market will determine if the biz succeeds or flops.

I do agree such things as agriculture isn't necessarily conforming to that definition, and yes there's a lot of grey area there. Overall though I think we have a pretty good system, and my beef is that I want the tax burden lowered even further to encourage further business development.

A true free market wouldn't have the government using billions in taxpayers money to bailout businesses that are failing (that were government chartered to begin with). A true free market wouldn't have massive subsidies that almost completely control all agriculture. A true free market would not do a lot of things that our supposed free market does. I would tend to agree that we seem to be closest to a free market than anyone else on earth, but we still don't have a real free market.