[kelnos]

It's hard to take this seriously, since no economy in the world (that we know of) in reasonably-modern times has been a free market.

I feel like the opposite of what you say is true: as economies grow past a certain point, market regulation is essential to avoid monopolistic practices and winner-take-all situations.

If the US was a true free market, our income inequality problems would be even worse, and we'd live in a de-facto corporatocracy. No thank you.

[_yoqn]

I think that if the US were a true free market we would have seen certain banks go bankrupt in 2008 and a more honest (or at least less stupid) system of banking take its place. Yes there would be pain, but there is already pain in other forms. You can't spray perfume on a rotten steak to make it any less of a problem. How about regulation that's supposed to protect consumers from big evil corporations are the same that prevent smaller players from getting a substantial foothold in the game and posing any kind of threat to the big players.

Look, I don't have all the answers but I do know that without the exchange of value for value as the basic unit of economic strength there will be confusion, waste and contraction in a society.