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Yes, anytime the government demands companies do things, pay them money, or favor one company over another... that is not a free market... we crossed that threshold a long time ago... but don't tell the liberals that... they still want to use "free market" as their scapegoat for the problems they create...
We are a mixed economy always have been always will be. There is no such thing as true capitalism and true socialism in the real world. The question is one of varing degrees and everyone has their own ideas as to which mix would be best.
The United States has never had a Free Market economy in its history. It is officially defined as a Mixed Economy. Meaning the government will intervene in the national economy if necessary and it has many times like right now.
When the government owns the banks and power companies and are the single payer into a universal health care system, you can say we've crossed that line. Too many people don't understand what socialism means, especially since the McCain campaign seized on that SAT-breeder Joe The Plumber's distorted definition.
The Republican party's years of crony capitalism got us where we are today.
The sooner they own up to it, the sooner they'll find their way back from the wilderness.
What got us here was years of people expecting too much from the govt, as the GOP moved farther towards the left to appease people to get elected, the problem became so much worse..
Like pure democracy (where everybody participates in every decision), pure free market cannot exist at a national level. Mindless free market leads to "casino capitalism" that we see today, the primary reason for the financial debacle at hand.
Or, did you really like seeing Bear Stearns extend its lending leverage to a whopping 33:1, since it was deemed "free" to do so. And you want more of it, right?
The funny part of this mess is that the people that expected the most from government were the financial and corporate elite that figured they owned it. We they must have because they got bailed out first before they could suffer from their speculative losses. Talk about entitlement. There is a name for a political and economic system that caters to the wealthy by protecting them from losses. I’ll let you guess what it is. Clue – It is usually tyrannical. We have an economy where the financiers are protected (how long was Madoff allowed to operate?) by government socialism and everyone else is allowed to try and compete with the monopolies. That is socialism for them and a "free" market for the rest of us.
PS – entitlement is a neo con code word for poor Black/Hispanic/white trash unwed mother.
PPs - The bigger and more consolidated the private sector becomes the less freedom we have. Have you dared disagree with your boss on economics and politics and kept your job? Most work places are ill disguised tyrannies.
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