I know I have politics brain, but I have to turn things to socioeconomic politics: If we're going to compete with a free market against China's hybrid-communis

I know I have politics brain, but I have to turn things to socioeconomic politics: If we're going to compete with a free market against China's hybrid-communism, then we should do things that enable the strengths of a free market to be realized. If our free market is a Magic The Gathering deck, it's like we're a blue deck that refuses to put any blue mana into the deck. Our deck isn't losing because it has bad ideas, it's because we weren't willing to put any of the supporting cards into play. Patents are mostly used by large companies to protect themselves against smaller companies that could be more efficient. We choose to use patents in a way that stifles new competition. We refuse to put the "efficient new competitor" card in our deck. Intellectual property lasts for--what?--150 years these days. Ridiculous. What about labor vs capital? Income is taxed more than capital gains. This is not based on economic theory or anything, this is just a decision we've made. We have chosen to value moving money and capital around more than working and building things. What about the "free" in free market? Do we make it easy for laborers to move around freely? Nope. We have weak social safety nets. Healthcare is tied to employment as though those who are not working a traditional job deserve to die. We allow Jimmy John's to include non-complete clauses to prevent their workers from making sandwiches for a company that pays more. We also allow a form of indentured servitude via "TRAPs"[0] which prevent workers from moving freely in the market. We're trying to compete as a free market without allowing most of the things that make free markets effective because they would be inconvenient for those who already have wealth and power. When the private data of millions of people is leaked twice a month, nobody cares--or rather, nobody with power to do something about it cares. When giant companies fail because they made bad decisions, we bail them out, thus eliminating the opportunity for new and smarter companies to grow. Our law making system seems completely unable to change any of these things and has devolved into one man making unpredictable threats and orders that are probably illegal and unenforceable, but most just follow them anyways. What does it mean when the things that happen in a healthy free market aren't happening? [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32905728 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32905728