This is a mistake I often make and I might as well admit to it here and now: I often equate "free markets" with "capitalism", and that's just wrong. It's an easy trap to fall for because almost everybody else makes the same mistake in political and public discourse. But that's no excuse; it's just wrong.
source: Public domain vectors
Sometimes I'm so deeply sunk in this swamp that I even describe capitalism as a model for producing and distributing goods and services, when in reality it's only the first; capitalism is a mode of production, and nothing else. It's that mode of production that hasn't fundamentally changed since slavery and feudalism, where a majority produce the goods and a minority receives the surpluses. I know, I've occasionally said this before, but I still keep falling for the same trap, and I'm sure to make this mistake again in the future; it's so deeply rooted in my mental processing of all the happenings in our society...
Markets are a way of distributing stuff, and nothing else; the opposite of free markets is not socialism or communism, which are alternative models for producing the stuff and taking away the power of the minority that has always received the benefits, the surpluses. No, the opposite of free markets is a planned economy, where distribution of goods and services is not left to supply and demand, but planned in a (hopefully) rational and just manner. Markets existed under slavery and feudalism and are not uniquely tied to capitalism at all. It is therefore no surprise to learn that markets have also existed in any socialist state that exists or has existed, even in the U.S.S.R. lots of goods and services were distributed through a system of market exchanges.
I post this short reminder not only for my own benefit, but also to invite those who make the same mistake I so often make and are opposed to socialism to perhaps reconsider; the people's ownership of the means of production can happily exist alongside some form of market. Not a free market, mind you, that has never existed and simply can not exist; there were rules even before we decided that it's not okay to trade slaves, so that's an idea you just have to let go of, it's a fantasy, and a destructive one at that. You don't want to exchange water, certainly not under a for profit based exchange system. Same goes for clean air and I would say a lot more, like food, electricity, gas, education, healthcare, medicine childcare, broadband (!!), and so on, everything we need to meet the basic needs for simply existing on this planet in a humane way that FREES us from those wants and enables us to participate in the democracy that's needed to make our economy a fair economy. In closing I invite you to watch this three minute video from Richard D. Wolff, and remind you all that Bernie Sanders has in his program proposals to make not only healthcare, but also broadband available for everyone (make it a PUBLIC utility like gas and electricity are now in many places)...
Richard Wolff on the Ignorance of Equating the Market with Capitalism
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