[Sloth]

You have stated some things that I felt but could not articulate.

For free-market capitalism to exist, there must necessarily be individual liberty to make choices about purchasing products and services with one's own money, selecting between competitors, acceptance of employment for an agreed-upon wage, etc. It makes no sense for us to deal with another country as if they are a free market when they're not, any more than it would make sense to treat North Korea as a democratic republic.

[Texas_Dawg]

For free-market capitalism to exist, there must necessarily be individual liberty to make choices about purchasing products and services with one's own money, selecting between competitors, acceptance of employment for an agreed-upon wage, etc.

That is classic. You make this great statement about what it takes "for free-market capitalism to exist" (and I assume you want it to exist in America) and then in the very next sentence argue why Americans should not be allowed "individual liberty to make choices about purchasing products and services with [their] own money".

[Tauzero]

"It makes no sense for us to deal with another country as if they are a free market when they're not, any more than it would make sense to treat North Korea as a democratic republic."

Actually it can make sense economically in the short run, but it is corrupting -- and thus bad economically in the long run.

What are all of our regulations but a testament to our corruption? We know how we should behave -- with honesty, kindness, and fairness -- and yet we do not do so. So we pass laws. And then the next stage of corruption begins, where ethics are displaced by laws, which are ethics' mere shadows. "It's not illegal, so I shall do it."

How corrupt are you, my country? Let me count the pages of the federal register.