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Today we're going to have a wide-ranging discussion of that totally misleading economic term so beloved by the right, the "free market." By the time we're finished, you'll never hear the phrase "free market" the same way again. One of the more… More…

Today we're going to have a wide-ranging discussion of that totally misleading economic term so beloved by the right, the "free market." By the time we're finished, you'll never hear the phrase "free market" the same way again. One of the more exasperating things when speaking to a right-winger, is that virtually no matter what subject you're talking about, if you're making good points and the right-winger has nothing to say, they'll resort to their old standby, all-purpose answer to anything: the free market. They'll accuse you of subverting the free market. The free market this, and the free market that. The free market will cure this problem, the free market will cure that problem. What brilliant marketing. Who could be against a free market? What, do you want an unfree market, an enslaved market? We're going to look at this rebranding of right-wing economics from a variety of different angles. Some are hifalutin' theory, others down and dirty, in-the-trenches experiential. I hope everyone will hear something in this podcast to grab onto and use it to speak truth to power the next time a right-winger is standing in front of you, pulling their "free market" schtick. The bottom line of this entire podcast is: First, there never was a free market, and there isn't one now. Second, even if there were, the results such a free market -- or any market -- produces, are not something we’re compelled to accept as holy writ. We'll show how our "free market" in this country is, in reality, a complex, government created, pro-corporate market structure. We'll review some of the unacceptable results that occur when this pro-corporate structure is allowed to function without progressive interventions. And finally, we'll delve a bit into the moral and philosophical edifice that the right has erected to justify their free market sham. (PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first, and don't respond just on the basis of the brief written summary above)