When it is stated that the American economy is "free-market", I find that to be a non-starter. Yes, a certain amount of the price of goods and services is dete

When it is stated that the American economy is "free-market", I find that to be a non-starter. Yes, a certain amount of the price of goods and services is determined organically, but the market is by no means "free" in the way that people think it is. It's heavily regulated, influenced by powerful industry lobbies, and substantially dictated by how the federal and state governments want to trade with other nations. It might not be overtly communistic or totalitarian, but that doesn't make it Laissez-faire, and it never really was in the first place. If we had a free market, then we wouldn't be allowing a small number of corporations to drive down prices, invite regulation, and collude with the press so as to snuff out meaningful competition. Some would argue that this is indeed a free market by the virtue that it is what the market has chosen, but not really. It's hardly different from feudalism.