23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism: Item #1 -- There's No Such Thing As A Free Market

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/story/149688/23_things_they_don%27t_tell_you_about_capitalism%3A_item_%231_--_there%27s_no_such_thing_as_a_free_market

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism: Item #1 -- There's No Such Thing as a Free Market
Author Ha-Joon Chang dismisses the idea that any capitalist market is free and questions whether it can ever really be fair.

January 31, 2011 |

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It is no secret that the American society is dominated by the super rich, held for hostage by the banks, dominated in the Nation's Capital by the tens of thousands of lobbyists and their big bucks, as the Republican party and their corporate Tea Partyists provide cover for giant theft of many billions of wealth for the very rich, with of course the cooperation of the Democrats who supported the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy (Check out Rachel Maddow's op-ed, which explains why Dwight Eisenhower, who taxed the rich to balance the budget, which be a radical in today's political reality). In this very discouraging environment it is hard to imagine scenarios where normal folks, every day voters, the non-rich, who are not represented by lobbyists, can have much influence.

On top of that, making change even harder, is an enormously effective propaganda system that perpetuates inaccurate and often destructive myths about virtually every element of capitalism and the US and global economy. And top economic officials in the Obama administration and leading mainstream economists often perpetuate these myths, and the corporate media marches along side repeating them like the gospel.

So, as far as I am concerned there never can be too much truth-telling to attempt to pull away the curtain of propaganda and disinformation that shrouds our economic thinking and actions. I am not under the illusion that the facts will set us free. As research has shown, when people connect their opinions to a set of values or leaders, they will not be open to changing their mind, and presentation of contrary "facts," may make them dig in more clinging their their misinformation. But when it comes to the economy, the propaganda system has been so pervasive, and supported by conventional wisdom that people who need to know better, buy into it, and yes that includes liberals and progressives who have a kind of inertia of the mind of their own. It is hard to change one's sense of things.

AlterNet's Economics editor Joshua Holland made a nice contribution to this public education effort this Fall with his book: The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy Now we have the funny, and sharp Chang. What follows is chapter one of his book: "There is No Such Thing as a Free Market." Other chapters are quite revealing such as: " The Washing Machine Has Changed the World More than the Internet;" "More Education, in Itself, Is Not Going to Make a Country Richer;" "The U.S. Does Not Have the Highest Living Standard in the World;" "Companies Should Not Be Run in the Interest of their Owners."

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[JVS]

1. It was something they told us in Econ.

We knew that we had models of economic behavior, but that the conditions assumed in the modeling were unreal. It's just like the physics problems that don't account for wind-resistance and friction.

[blindpig]

2. These proponents of 'pure' or 'real' capitalism are idealists

might as well 'believe in' gods or fairies. The reality is what it is.

[Kablooie]

3. It seems that a truly free market will eliminate itself.

If markets are free with no regulation they seem to coalesce into monopolies, thereby eliminating the free market.

Even with regulated markets this seems to be the trend, probably because the believers of a free market weaken the laws so that this is the result.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. Well, it's certainly true that most people don't tell you that...

However "Most people don't say something is true" is not a terribly good way of convincing me that it is...

[Locrian]

5. faith based system

"Free Market" believers have the same tendency of religious zealots and fundamentalists. Give evidence of the system's failure, they simply respond that it wasn't "free enough". IE you didn't "believe" enough. Have enough "faith". "Pray" hard enough, etc, etc, etc..


BTW - what the hell IS the formal definition of "free market"? Is it that there are markets? Is it the money system? Personal liberty? Do they really believe in "no laws"? I always ask supporters and never get a clear answer.

In a "free market" should business be able to run scams? Can they simply rob you? Or do you need laws? So what kind of laws? Etc, etc.... There just isn't (and canot be) such a thing as a "free market". It's just a trick that they use to say that the reason xyz failed is that it wasn't "free enough". I find most "free market" types are perfectly willing to have laws and regulation when they benefit from them.