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Isn't a completely free market a really bad idea?

A free market is what got us into this mess. There was the repealing of Glass-Steagall Act and the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that enabled the poor banking practices that ruined the financial sector. It's not like we didn't know that the bankers couldn't be trusted to be left to their own devices. The current situation is no more than a magnified version of the Savings and Loan crisis of the late 80's.

Public Comments

1. No of course not. Theft should be legal. I mean we should just naively depend on everyone's good will and everything will be just fine.
2. Yes it is. With a completely free market, I would be climbing over the bodies of my enemies to reach the brass ring.
3. It is more than that. You are only on step one of 20 or more steps to national financial ruin. But yes. Capitalism needs to be held to rule of law. It protects the public and it protects legitimate business.
4. We haven't had a free market since the Fed took control of the dollar in 1913. (Side note: The dollar is worth 3 cents next to the dollar they took control of.) Since then it has been a matter of competing unintended consequences from governmental intervention. But YES we should regulate our GOVERNMENT, the FED and stop fraud at all levels. Free market does not approve theft or fraud, it is a cost to all transactions.
5. Well, the "completely free market" gave us of the Great Depression. So yeah, its a bad idea.
6. A free market. The banks are nationalized... (ref. the Federal Reserve) and one of the most regulated entities in this country... The medical industry is regulated to the point where the AMA can decide how many doctors and earn a degree in a given year... The insurance industry (the least regulated) is in cahoots with the federal government and CAUSES those high medical prices... Where is the free market? Government involvement in the market is what go us here in the first place!
7. No, government influence on the free market is what got us into this mess. Fannie and Freddie were government creations and even when they separated from direct government control, the government was still heavily involved and pulling strings. We've never let the free market work. When businesses make poor decisions, we keep trying to prop them up instead of letting them disappear and allow new more effective businesses to fill their place.
8. A completely free market doesn't even exist FOR A GOOD REASON... because it doesn't work...... not without abuse, exploitation, corrruption, ... its been actually detrimental to a civil society.... that's why it has ALWAYS had to be regulated. The LIFTING of some of those regulations as under Bush..(and yeah Clinton).... lead us to the MESS we're in NOW.
9. "A free market is what got us into this mess." Not entirely true, Fannie and Freddie are government sponsored entities, they can be considered a part of government. When the government gets directly involved with the economy, it's not a free market. If Fannie and Freddie were private companies, they would have been bound to more strict regulations (they had exceptions due to their GSE status), and their is no way they would have had the capital to gamble away with that they enjoyed due to their GSE status.
10. A completely free market has never existed and never could exist in practice. The ruling capitalist class are only too happy to have the state intervene on their behalf when it suits them. However 'free' or otherwise the market is, capitalism is a barbaric system that kills people and ruins the lives of many others.
11. Deregulation reached an all-time high under George W. Bush... It's going to be a slow process to return America to "capitalism with oversight". The unfortunate problem is that lobbyists for all the major industries have become the most powerful kids on the block and now, instead of bribing congress the way they used to - they invest in advertising to fool the public into thinking a certain way about the economy. This certain "way of thinking" is being marketed as "Free Market" or "conservatism" or "Fair Tax" but it is really just anti-oversight and willy-nilly deregulation.
12. A completely free market is a bad idea like it is a bad idea to not put restrictions on bullies. Some believe the biggest and strongest are the ones that should do the best and take everything. However, most people feel that a more level playing field based on merit and performance versus capital clout and decisions from a few result in a long-term strong economy. So, restricted and regulated capitalism fuels innovation and competition in this country like no other. Luckily, the types who believe in that philosophy oversaw the US developing into a economic superpower after WWII until Regan. When too few determine so much, they are bound to fail - like GM squashing hybrid and electric vehicle technology by simply buying up proto-types and mothballing them. A simple decision to leverage heavily in derivatives by a handful of companies brought the world economy to its knees. These companies never would have had this had that level of clout before Reagan, and hopefully they won't ever have that again. There is little glorious (to the vast majority of Americans) about an economy based on the Gilded Age model.