The Myth of the Great Free Market

     One of the mantras from one part of our society is that we need to encourage and celebrate the free market economy.  This great ideal is what made this country great. That one could work and rise to the level of success that the work merited.  We made it possible for the little man to rise up and be the big man.  Any complaint or criticism of the rich and wealth was an insult to this country's founding ideals. The rich are where they are because they have worked hard in this free market and made it to the top. Not only did they make it to the top it their efforts to make it to the top, they have enriched the multitudes that they used to help them. The wealth does not trickle down from these successful "free market" people, it gushes down and nourishes them completely.
     That is the myth I keep hearing.  What I hear from most of my small business and from these same free market people is that the market is vastly over regulated.  We need to reduce the regulations. Cut out all these restrictions and limitations, all these safety concerns and environmental constrictions and allow small business to make a profit.  Well, that is the first reason I suggest that this notion of free market is a myth. There is no free market. Never has been. And never should be a completely free market.  If they argue there are too many restrictions, they confess that the market is not free.
      The market is not free because we have seen what kind of evil is done by a completely free market in the past.  When airlines had their safety regulations reduced they had a lot more incidents of trouble. When Standard Oil was controlling the whole gas and oil production, the government had to step in and break up that monopoly.  When technology was in its infancy, AT&T was the dominate phone company that was limiting and preventing growth, so the government had to break up AT & T into little Bell's. There is no free market because an absolute free market would be victim of the greed, power, and corruption of the human heart.  One only has to look at the housing- subprime mortgage mess to see that greed, power, and corruption play out.
     There is no "free market" because the common good of society need to have some checks and balances on the market. Without those checks of drugs, food, safety, and other products there would be chaos in the market.
     The other side of the free market myth is that no business or corporation wants a free market. They all want special privileges and loop holes and opportunities only for their own business.  The company with the contract does not want there to be open bidding for the services. The gas and oil do not want alternative energies developed.  General Motors had the best electric car in California ages ago, but killed and lobbied against electric cars for ages. That is part of the myth of the free market. Nobody really wants a free market. They want regulations to benefit their market.