Inequality and the Lie of the “Free Market”

Inequality shapes the world. For a brief moment, a few men of The Enlightenment almost made it possible for the United States to become a country where “all men are created equal.”

 

Wikipedia has a relatively neutral definition of “free market” that considers ideological perspectives:
One view is that a free market is a system in which the prices for goods and services are determined by the open market and consumers, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority. Another view considers systems with significant market power, inequality of bargaining power, or information asymmetry to be less than free.

 

 

 

The Great American Stickup by Robert Scheer

picture in black and white of Benjamin Franklin from money with tidtle and subtitle book jacetThe Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats enriched Wall Street while mugging Main Street by Robert Scheer, (2010)