The "Free Market" Debate Begins

[LSparkle]

I feel like the rise of gas prices -- at the same time oil companies have posted record profits -- has opened the debate on the "free market" vs. the "fair market." I think the US is going to have to decide whether it wants "free market capitalism" (meaning law of the jungle, laissez-faire, no-holds-barred cutthroat competition) which the Repugs espouse, or "fair market capitalism" along the lines of FDR and the Democrats (meaning competition is good but it must be made FAIR by some government regulation). Capitalism only REALLY works when it's FAIR -- meaning that the government needs to occasionally rein in the natural impulse to exploit and cheat others.

[orwell]

1. The Great Myth...

...is that we have "free market capitalism" in the United States. Nothing is further from the truth. We have crony pseudo-capitalist plutocracy.

[ClintonTyree]

4. When the taxpayers have to bail out.....

savings and loan companies, auto makers etc. that sort of blows the "free market" shit right out of the water, doesn't it? :shrug:

[Boojatta]

2. Should long-term gasoline price predictions influence city design?

[berni_mccoy]

3. We are part of the Global Market, which is NOT Free by any means

Free Market is a complete myth. We may have had a resemblence of a free market at one time when it was mostly the American market, but as companies have moved jobs out-of-country and overseas, the 'free market' has become the 'free-for-all' market. Everyone for themself...