"THE FREE MARKET"- EXPLAINED

[T.Ruth2power]

Econ 101: The most important condition that needs to be present in a free market is free, instantaneous, accurate, universally available information, which, alas, is against all universal laws of physics and human nature. That old reality thing again, it just won't quit, will it?

If, in Bizarro World, all necessary conditions are met, free market theory explains market behavior in the _______ run. If you answered "Short", go sew some burlap bags together and find your scythe, because Serf's Up!

If the free market corrects itself in the long run, what happens in the short run? Besides bargain-hunting and profit taking? How about lead in toys? Or Enron con games? Or exploding gasoline tanks? Or salmonella in spinach?

If enough people get hurt, the word trickles out and eventually the trickle becomes a rivulet and then a puddle and before long a little pond might form and then a crick and an arroyo then a gulley washer, well... you get my drift - it takes time for word to get to the market and force a correction. Harm to humans in short run, before "free market" correction in long run. That's all one really needs to know about the free market theory.

Goddamn, who could be against free markets!!! If you're against free markets, why, you're against FREEDOM, right?

The reality is that government regulations, and the insider elites who actually control the government regulations through the political process, as well as insider elite self-dealing, cancel out the conditions necessary for even a semblance of a free market. Klein's point is these elites use "shocks", both cynically those they manufacture and opportunistically those that just happen, as an excuse for repression by manipulating the so-called free market.

I am open to other explanations, if anyone has any.

Did I say the free market was a theory? Sorry, I was wrong.

The Free Market is a big fat LIE.

[Orrex]

1. Nice post, Comrade

The free market has brought us everything from super-rich multibillionaires to not-quite-as-super-rich mutilmillionaires.

And now you're going to tell me that it doesn't work?


What crazy planet do you live on?

[T.Ruth2power]

2. Which side are you on?

[Anexio]

9. .

I'm on the left side or I could be on the right side, but it's the side I've always been on. It's the side that to me means caring about people, animals, and nature. It means, to me, actually doing something about it rather than just talking about it. It means making a commitment to the earth, to humanity and to myself.

It doesn't frigging matter what side people are on. If you see a need and you have the strength to make it right, then do something about and quit whining about injustice.

The quiet ones that do the good deeds are my heros.

[Orrex]

11. If you look closely, you can see me floating face-down in one of those pools

Tripped over the skimmer, and in I went.

[Gabi Hayes]

12. I think it's a jape.

I wonder if I passed his reading comprehension test.

if he's not kidding, well, what can one say?

bring em on



c'est ca!

[WA98070]

19. Is this real? If so, where is it?

[dflprincess]

3. I was amused to see an article in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune

about the President of the deregulated Northwest Airlines asking legislators to stop the oil speculators by regulating the oil industry.

I have a feeling he had no sense of irony as he did this.

[truedelphi]

4. Who has free markets these days??

C'mon confess up.

There are NO free markets left in this country.

If there were, Bear Stearns would have been left to fend for itself, instead of Socialist Bernacke taking taxpayer monies to help Bear Stearns get purchased by Morgan Stanley.

[T.Ruth2power]

5. Bernanke's a socialist?

Crazy concept.

The "market" by definition is never free nor has it ever been. All of this is just a constructed language to validate oppression.

Bernanke is a rapacious capitalist scumbag. Nary a socialist bone in his body.

[truedelphi]

7. Stop and think about it for a minute.

He helped prop up a bank who was experiencing heavy heavy losses. Not with money out of his pocket, but money from your pocket, my pocket and every other tax payers' pocket. That is socialism.

What we are seeing in the USA is socialism for the rich to help them avoid losing their investments. But this new type of socialism does not require the rich to share their winnings, just their losses.

[HughBeaumont]

16. Free Markets: Privatize the Wealth and Spoils, Socialize the Risk and Loss.

[truedelphi]

17. Great and concise analysis. n/t

[Overseas]

18. Exactly what Republican style "free markets" are.

[DaveJ]

6. Who really utilizes the free market anyway?

Our market is not free, and that reduces people's chance at building their own businesses.

But, really, how many people really attempt to start a serious business? Almost nobody I've ever met.

Perhaps if more people in the U.S. had an entrepreneurial spirit, something would be done about this problem.

Even those who consider themselves entrepreneurs often do little more than start up a franchise, ie., give some corporation $500k in exchange for the privilege of running their store. Very little creativity, there, IMO. Most people are just happy being controlled by these less than free market forces. A lot brag about their understanding of how to "sell themselves" which is the farthest they venture into free market behavior.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

8. Privatize the profits and socialize the risk. nt

[Mr Rabble]

10. I have a better explanation for everyone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgFlJjnULh0

Have a listen to an explanation of really existing free market doctrine.

[Kitty Herder]

13. Excellent.

Thanks for posting this. Chomsky's intellect is like a super-sharp scalpel that cut through to the true heart of any issue.

[T.Ruth2power]

15. Kick for this

[Gabi Hayes]

14. think lucy. think rift valley

it's been the same thing for over a million years

it's never going to change, until we wipe our cancerous growth off the planet.

hope that happens before we render it uninhabitable for most other life forms

wonder how things will evolve after we're gone......


ask the Martians