> The US has done quite well Some do extremely well, many don't do well at all. > with a mostly free market. We both know there are massive social programs,

> The US has done quite well Some do extremely well, many don't do well at all. > with a mostly free market. We both know there are massive social programs, and the market is unfree in many ways - powerful participants often make markets very non-free for others, and of course some are highly regulated to the point of distortion. I actually favor using the free market whenever possible, most importantly because of the first word - people should be free to do as they like in business too, as much as possible - and because it works very well for the great majority of things. I think we need freer markets - open to all competitors. Extreme capitalism is destroying the free market because capitalists are driving out competition. It's become capitalistism - an economy allocating things for the capitalists, not for capital.