[Jaysun]

I am suggesting that when the wealthy and powerful create the trade rules, they will not create a free market. Ask yourself - What are the advantages of a free market? Increased competition, a demand for increased productivity, a drive for technological investment, lower prices, thinner profit margins,......etc.

PS - who is more wealthy and powerful than the government? And things such as increased productivity, a drive for technological investment, lower prices, etc. drive profits UP. It's how Sam Walton once came to be the wealthiest man on earth, how Rockefeller made what was expensive (sperm whale oil) absurdly cheap.

A nation doesn't become wealthy by raising taxes - you don't become rich by raising prices. Name for me, please sir, an absurdly rich man that didn't get that way by making his products or services cheaper? And, for that matter, a rich man that didn't do his damnedest to give it away before his death?

Freedom is absurd. But it is correct and moral.

[nitzy]

Name for me, please sir, an absurdly rich man that didn't get that way by making his products or services cheaper?

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1841989

When there is lack of a free market such as an oligopoly you can get away with it.

Sam Walton started off making his money in a free market by beating the hell out of his competition and working his ass off. Then once he got ahead in the mid 90's he started to heavily use communist slave labor in China to tilt the board.

https://www.etrade.wallst.com/v1/stocks/charts/charts.asp?symbol=WMT

Republicans claim to love big business and hate big government.

Democrats claim to love big government and hate big business.

But you should understand that big government loves big business and big business loves big government.

If you ran a business and had a congress critter in your pocket, would you want him to have more or less power over the market?

If you were a congress critter, would you want potential bribe money to be spread out among the masses or pooled together in large companies who need to buy influence?