Assuming your premise, though dubious, is true--what does this irrational American belief in the free market have to do with Ron Paul?
Are you talking about the Texas shrimp industry?
The most fundamental reason why there is no free market is that the Fed is constantly playing with the money supply for various purposes and intents - most of which turn out to be ill-advised and counter to what a free market would actually do.
For example, right now, they’re trying desperately to re-inflate the housing bubble. It would be better to simply allow it to deflate and collapse, purge the banks run by idiots and allow capital to be re-allocated to those who don’t have their heads up their asses. But no, the Fed is intent on keeping the idiots at all levels of the housing market in the market - which is completely contrary to the ideal of a free market.
The only way we could approach a free market in the macro economy of the US would be to eliminate the Fed and grow the money supply based on the overall size of the economy - on a simple, rule-based system.