'Free Market'

Now that the political season is officially underway, one ideal that is sure to be bandied around is, ‘Free Market.’

In fact, one political party has gone out of its way to endorse the idea that government regulation, or intervention as they call it, actually destroys free markets. Don’t be fooled by this rhetoric. As long as human evolution has been in effect, there has been no such thing as ‘free market.’ Like there’s no such thing as a free lunch, or a free ride, or a free stock tip from your broker. In the end, the Piper will come to claim his coin.

The term, ‘free market,’ is euphemism for, survival of the fittest. And where profit margins are concerned, companies and corporations alike are in a vicious free-for-all to become ‘too big to fail.’ And I seriously doubt I have to remind you what that philosophy leads to.

This is the reason government regulation is necessary. So that companies whose mission it is to become too big to fail, don’t trample over the laws that give us quality of life. And they reprimand companies that create economic and environmental catastrophes that take decades to repair (remember the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, British Petroleum’s spill in the Gulf, and the AIG bubble that burst?).

Whenever I hear the phrase, ‘free market,’ I’m reminded of a song that soul-songstress, Aretha Franklin made gold, ‘Who’s Zoomin’ Who?’ Although the title isn’t grammatically correct – it’s Who’s Zooming Whom? – but the message is dead on point – Don’t piss on my head and tell me that it’s raining.

If ever there was a case for, ‘Don’t believe the hype,’ a ‘free market’ is it.