What confusion. The “refs” in the free market are the self interests of both the buyers and the sellers who don’t need government “refs” to tell them what’s good for them.
Socialist arguments abound around here.
Simple question:
Are patents good or would you prefer a system where guilds have secrets?
You see, China doesn’t care.
They will violate your patent or steal your secret.
It makes no difference to them.
They will subsidize the hell out of industries they don’t want others to have in their quest for global hegemony. Free trade and the invisible hand only work if there is equity.
Our government doesn’t try to manage our trade by manipulating our system (much). It is all they do. The only reason our steel industry all but disappeared is they subsidized the hell out of theirs. we make better steel and often at or below their cost with transport but their subsidies destroyed our mills ability to compete.
Airbus is the EU pulling the same kind of crap.