I’ve talked to a number of people on a few different forums and they all seem to think that either the free market means a manipulation of the market via the federal reserve or that it means we’d have a bunch of cartels running things. I don’t think a free market needs to be either of those things. I know that people here know better but I would like to distinguish between the two forms of economic intervention and try to debunk the idea that these things are free market ideas.
First one is that the federal reserve should lower interest rates and keep taxes low… that would be better for people. That’s a commonly held belief among conservatives. Conservatives want to allow for the central bank to do what it wants at ease. Conservatives often hail themselves as supply-sliders… when in reality they’re really Keynesians.
The second misconception about the free market is that somehow the free market leads to rich people having a lot of money and a lot of power. That’s not the free market’s doing. Yes, there are people out there who want to control the world and want to formulate the world’s policy. There has always been a system of aristocracy that has existed throughout history. This isn’t an idea that’s happened because of the free market.
The third misconception about the free market is that it allows these corporations to get really this big in the first place. Yes, it’s artificial wealth that they have. They don’t want to get rid of it though. Part of what makes these fake corporate capitalists powerful in the first place- is the central bank. These corporations will work for the government in creating regulation that further restricts our freedom and enables them to infringe on our privacy even more. This isn’t a free market idea.
The fourth misconception of the free market is that there is no regulation. There was a ton of regulation. This regulation didn’t really work that well… so I don’t see why liberals would lie outright about this. Perhaps they overlook the fact that in all of their equations they always point to Republican Keynesian regulation that has caused these economic booms and busts… then they go on to say that there is no driving force of regulation that is behind these problems.
The fifth most common misconception is that somehow everything is capitalism’s fault. Obviously when you have regulation at place that would be what is at fault… while capitalism could deserve some blame it doesn’t deserve as nearly as much as people think it does.
Those are the five common misconceptions I’ve noticed people have about capitalism. I seriously think that people don’t understand what a free market is and what a true free market society is. For an example of the kind of clueless posts about the free market on the internet I’ve encountered I’d like to point you to this one topic where I debunked some common liberal or conservatives myths about the free market: http://liberalforum.org/liberalforum/index.php?/topic/70553-debunking-liberal-and-conservative-lies-about-the-free-market/
What can we do about this? I’m not an anarchist… I’m not a statist either… but I’m not ignorant enough to think that the free market is somehow evil or that it can only work when it’s manipulated. What’s your opinion about what we can do? I’m tired of this ignorance shown on many internet forums regarding capitalism and the free market.