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What are the advantages/disadvantages of a Free Market? of a Planned Economy? What do you prefer?

Please enumerate and explain your answers. Thank you.

Public Comments

1. Neither. History proves that our economy grew to an industrial superpower, an exporter, and a creditor nation because of tariffs on imports. Look up the Tariff of 1828. The slave states hated tariffs, because the slave states were exporter states from the slave labor, and exporters are harmed by putting tariffs on their imports. The northern free enterprise states were importers before the Civil War, and importers want tariffs on imports to protect their domestic industry from foreign competition. The northern states outvoted the southern states on tariffs. That led to the Civil War. We became an exporter nation in 1880, and a creditor nation in 1914. Because of the revenues from tariffs, we didn't even have an income tax until 1913. Before that, income taxes were unconstitutional. That's why Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913. We had become an exporter nation, and exporters are hurt by tariffs. That's why we needed to shift from tariffs to income taxes at the turn of the century. We became a prosperous nation because of tariffs, not free trade, and not central planning. Today, a free market is impossible because China is a protectionist exporter. They restrain free trade, and the EU just put a tariff on Chinese imports, with full WTO approval. China is now getting a taste of the reason why exporters should not have protectionism. We are fools if we think we can have free trade while China is a protectionist exporter. That's why our trade deficit is skyrocketing and we are a huge debtor nation. The insanity of free trade in the current conditions is the reason why our economy has collapsed.
2. I prefer a regulated free market. A totally free market is a vicious thing. As Adam Smith said, No two businessmen ever sat down to a dinner without concluding the evening with a plot to eliminate their competition. A totally planned economy only works if the person doing the planning is omniscient. The more concentrated the power is, the more likely there will be mistakes and the more stubbornly they will be held on to by the people at the top. The same problem also applies to excessive regulation, which can become a form of planned economy. But, there is a world of difference between; thou shall not, and thou shall.
3. free market means you depending on your luck and skill, you can have a really nice life, or a really cheap one. In planned economy, you know you will have a cheap life no matter how much (or how little) you work. So talented and hard-working prefer free-market, and lazy bums prefer planned economy.
4. Free market!