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We have a free market.

Really? We do? I can design pacemakers and sell them? I can negotiate for a labor rate that I and my potential employee desire? I can set work hours as I and my employees see fit? I can use whatever doorknobs I want on the bathroom door?

I can negotiate my own benefits package with my employees - including long-term retirement?

I can choose to use my own septic and well water?

I can design a product in Singapore, manufacture it in China, and have my Hong Kong office sell it to the UK and not have to pay US taxes on the profit?

Friend, if you think we have a free market, then you really need to come spend a week in Shanghai. I'll take you to the Fengyang market where you will see such raw, naked capitalism as you have never witnessed.

Nobody else on earth does.

There are 5 countries that even the conservative Heritage Organization states are more economically free than us. And guess what - the top 2 are in Asia! And, the number one best - Hong Kong - is "ChiCom".

China's working towards revamping its own entire economy to mimic Hong Kong. It's becoming much more free and open in terms of how business is done and how transactions are made. I know from personal experience the amount of Government intrusion I have here in China is about 1/10th of that I have in the US.

I have essentially zero forms to fill out here in China; in the US (where I still have to maintain a business presence, legally) I have 4-5 monthly forms to fill out for the Feds, the State, and the City.

If you think the US has a free market, then you need to travel outside the borders a bit and try some other markets because we're a lot more locked down than you think.

On that list from Heritage, I've run businesses in #1, #6, #11, #20, and #132. I can tell you that the US ranks as high as it does because of the freedom of banking and investment, not because of business atmosphere. In Hong Kong, Chile, and China the level of Government intrusion my business operations was (and is) essentially non-existent. Minimal paperwork, no-fuss/no-muss.

Even Belgium was better than the US, and for a socialist country to be easier is simply amazing.

If the US is a free market, then GM is free enterprise at its best.

There, I agree with you. I’ve maintained here on FR that in the US, we have a “free market” in only illicit drugs and prostitution outside Nevada.

In fact, I would posit that now, all trade conducted in US dollars is no longer a “free market” - being that the Fed is manipulating the value of the US dollar as far as it is.

Hong Kong outstrips the US on ease of business formation by a mile and then some.

I would also posit, however, that mainland China won’t resemble Hong Kong (pre-99) in anything but superficial ways. The banking system in China is seriously command-driven, much to their future detriment.