Good lord. Here's someone who doesn't have a single clue about what this country was built on or how the real world works, and she is paid (I presume) good money to write a column for a major American newspaper:
What I can't get out of my head is the way we've been suckered again into believing the malarkey sold by Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, Alan Greenspan and a long list of conservative think tanks, that the market is our savior. It is so convenient to make government the bad guy, the one who interferes with everyone's pot of gold, and make open markets the answer to what ails, as Reagan did so often. But the historical reality is that the free market has a dark side that causes social displacement and instability, and by its nature it is an uncaring thing.
The free market does not raise eyebrow when investor obsession with short-term profits results in outsourcing for cheap, exploitable labor overseas and the abandonment of health benefits or pensions for whatever American employees remain. Rather it cheers.
The market is not the best part of America. Not even close. Our government is the best part — or at least it used to be before the current gang took over.
Ultimately, it is government that defines who we are and lays out a path for how our society will be.
Sigh. Well, just go vote for Clinton or Obama, and I hope you'll be happy with how the goverment "defines who we are."
"The market" -- free people making informed choices and living with the consequences of their decisions -- is not the best part of America? Stand in line for your handouts and marching orders, babe, and wake me when it's over.
