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The Milton Friedmans of the world have shoved this free market myth down our throats for decades. We've elected three presidents (election being impossible but unnecessary for the current sock puppet in chief) who espouse this doctrine -- Reagan, Bush I and Clinton I. If any of the corporate-approved candidates/shills wins in 2008 -- and who's to stop them when the only good guys running are labeled "unelectable fringe candidates" -- we'll have had more than 30 years worth of US economic doctrine based on this utterly inhumane brand of tough-shit capitalism.
Enough Americans bought enough of Friedman, et al's bullshit to elect these anti-worker, pro-corporatist, pro-Wall St. economic Darwinists, who began shilling for the bliss of unrestrained capitalism -- which is just code for institutionalized greed run amok -- from the day they took office and never let up. And when the federal government provides the "invisible hand" by collaborating with various favored industries, then waging proxy wars for raw materials on behalf of their corporate masters, it's the so-called perfect storm of collusion, corruption and cronyism combining to create an economic environment that's designed to encourage corporate vampires to bleed consumers dry, leaving just enough in the bank for another round of unrepentant screwing when the time's right.
But the voters feasted on this ideological garbage because it produced the results they had been taught by mass media and the right wing orchestra to value: low prices and throw-away goods, consumerism as national religion, the mall as all-American pleasure dome, reduced governmental regulatory oversight, reduced union influence, continual reductions in labor costs, off-shoring manufacturing to cheap labor regions leading to further suppression of American wages, and so on as the corporate world races for the bottom.
All these outcomes are seen as net positives by free-traders and mirrored by consumers who have been taught, per the cliche, the price of everything and the value of nothing.
This is why the obscene profits being raked in by the fossil fuels industry infuriate me, along with those being raked in by the war industry, the fast foods industry, the investment and financial services industry, the big box industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the for-profit medical industry and on down the list.
An informed, aware, educated and activist citizenry would have put a halt to this scam by burying Reagan under a Carter landslide back in 1980. The late 20th century American chowder head, though, dim as a guttering candle and thick as a railroad tie, bought the myth, voted enthusiastically for it and gave Reagan his "mandate" to finalize the destruction of American society and, in its place, create 260 or so million semi-autonomous city states constantly at war with one another over a dwindling supply of goods, services, jobs and houses.
By the time it became obvious to even the chowder heads that this type of renegade capitalism was a double-edged sword that could come back to slash them in the wallet, it was too late. NAFTA, GATT, CAFTA, the upcoming North American Alliance -- all designed to benefit the most voracious, predatory and amoral capitalists while marginalizing and ultimately silencing the dissenting voices of those who've been screwed yet again in the name of economic pragmatism.
In this environment, asking oil companies to explain why they're gouging their customers is like asking a vulture to justify eating carrion. It's the nature of the beast.
So despite nationwide sniveling over gas prices -- most likely from many of those same people who embraced free market ideology so enthusiastically -- it's hypocritical to extol the virtues of an unregulated free-market system and then whine when that system works exactly according to plan.
By law, the only obligation of a publicly held for-profit US company is maximizing return on investment for the sole benefit of its stockholders and senior management. Going easy on the consumer -- particularly when the consumer is absolutely addicted to the product and a de facto monopoly exists among the alleged competitors -- is pretty far down the list of corporate priorities.
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