There's a huge lie built into the core of capitalism.
it goes like this:
The Market Decides.
Libertarians and free market capitalists, like Milton Friedman and his acolytes, believe that "the market decides"
The idea is that the market will determine whether something has value... or not. At face value, this is a very bottom-up idea. The problem is that this core theory-- that literally, policies can be decided based on what the market decides-- that this is the purest way to run an economy-- is based on lies and delusions.
The truth is there is no un-influenced, pure market. Every market is bought, manipulated and corrupted. The idea of a free market should be deposited into the dustbin of history where the idea that kings are chosen by god has long been rotting.
Milton Friedman, in his efforts to create free markets, became a diabolical monster, using force and theft to steal resources and national assets held by the commons, giving them to corporations. Naomi Klein writes about this, describing disaster capitalism in her classic book, Shock Doctrine.
Yet there are still many ideologues-- really they are naive economic adolescents-- who still embrace this childish fantasy, often along with it, the narcissist message of Ayn Rand, which, in my opinion, is not even adolescent.
The fact is, people who use the free market argument are really arguing for the big corporations and billionaires-- those who benefit from the reality that there is no free market, only a market already corrupted and skewed in the favor of moneyed and powerful interests.
When someone actually proposes the free market in a conversation, there's not much more to do than laugh at the idea. An appropriate reply would be "is it an economy mediated by leprechauns, Green Dragons or winged faieries?" And while youre at it, think of evil versions of Leprechauns and faeries.
Not this kind of Leprechaun
More like this kind:
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