海角大神

One of the most deceptive ideas continuously sounded by the Right (and its fathomless think tanks and media outlets) is that the 鈥渇ree market鈥� is natural and inevitable, existing outside and beyond government. So whatever inequality or insecurity it generates is beyond our control. And whatever ways we might seek to reduce inequality or insecurity 鈥� to make the economy work for us 鈥� are unwarranted constraints on the market鈥檚 freedom, and will inevitably go wrong.聽

By this view, if some people aren鈥檛 paid enough to live on, the market has determined they aren鈥檛 worth enough. If others rake in billions, they must be worth it. If millions of Americans聽remain unemployed or their paychecks are shrinking or they work two or three part-time jobs with no idea what they鈥檒l earn next month or next week, that鈥檚 too bad; it鈥檚 just the outcome of the market.

According to this logic, government shouldn鈥檛 intrude through minimum wages, high taxes on top earners, public spending to get people back to work, regulations on business, or anything else, because the 鈥渇ree market鈥� knows best.聽

In reality, the 鈥渇ree market鈥� is a bunch of rules about (1) what can be owned and traded (the genome? slaves? nuclear materials? babies? votes?); (2) on what terms (equal access to the internet? the right to organize unions? corporate monopolies? the length of patent protections? ); (3) under what conditions (poisonous drugs? unsafe foods? deceptive Ponzi schemes? uninsured derivatives? dangerous workplaces?) (4) what鈥檚 private and what鈥檚 public (police? roads? clean air and clean water? healthcare? good schools? parks and playgrounds?); (5) how to pay for what (taxes, user fees, individual pricing?). And so on.聽

These rules don鈥檛 exist in nature; they are human creations. Governments don鈥檛 鈥渋ntrude鈥� on free markets; governments organize and maintain them. Markets aren鈥檛 鈥渇ree鈥� of rules; the rules define them.聽

The interesting question is what the rules should seek to achieve. They can be designed to maximize efficiency (given the current distribution of resources), or growth (depending on what we鈥檙e willing to sacrifice to obtain that growth), or fairness (depending on our ideas about a decent society). Or some combination of all three 鈥� which aren鈥檛 necessarily in competition with one another. Evidence suggests, for example, that if prosperity were more widely shared, we鈥檇 have faster growth.

The rules can even be designed to entrench and enhance the wealth of a few at the top, and keep almost everyone else comparatively poor and economically insecure.聽

Which brings us to the central political question: Who should decide on the rules, and their major purpose? If our democracy was working as it should, presumably our elected representatives, agency heads, and courts would be making the rules roughly according to what most of us want the rules to be. The economy would be working for us; we wouldn鈥檛 be working for the economy.聽

Instead, the rules are being made mainly by those with the power and resources to buy the politicians, regulatory heads, and even the courts (and the lawyers who appear before them). As income and wealth have concentrated at the top, so has political clout. And the most important clout is determining the rules of the game.聽

Not incidentally, these are the same people who want you and most others to believe in the fiction of an immutable 鈥渇ree market.鈥�

If we want to reduce the savage inequalities and insecurities that are now undermining our economy and democracy, we shouldn鈥檛 be deterred by the myth of the 鈥渇ree market.鈥� We can make the economy work for us, rather than the other way around. But in order to change the rules, we must exert the power that is supposed to be ours.