From the beginning, most commentators agreed that this recession was caused by a failure of the free market. But an important fact that seems to have been forgotten is that America is not a free market.
The government is active in every industry-from health care to the aeronautics industry-and in every aspect of the economy-from the price of labor to the money supply and interest rates. When one considers the Postal Service, Unified School Districts, the Agriculture Adjustment Acts, and hundreds of other laws and regulations that control and restrain the economy, it is just bizarre to call this level of government intervention in our economy a ‘free market.’
It was the mixed economy-not the free market-that failed. Once we acknowledge this, we are left with two options: move further down the path of socialism or in the opposite direction towards freedom.
For more information on this topic, please check out Yaron Brook and Don Watkin’s excellent article, “America’s Unfree Market”.
A fuller explanation of the meaning (and implied moral base) of Laissez-faire is available in Ayn Rand’s timeless articles, “The Nature of Government” and “Man’s Rights”.
