[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Problem is, we don't really have a 'free market'. We haven't had anything of the sort for quite awhile. Government-dictated wages in the form of minimum wage laws and the Federal Reserve dictating interest rates are examples of just the opposite. Now we're hearing the idea promoted of 'maximum wages' -- the President just recently said that some of us have made "enough money."

So as you can see, it's not entirely accurate to say that "free marketism failed miserably" when we have really tried it, and in fact, things appear to be moving in precisely the other direction.

Beem brings up another great point, speaking of gov't invention, the mortgage securities and housing crash were the catalyst to knock our economy down. Many of the mortgages that were made, were done so under gov't pressure/programs. These risky mortgages wouldn't normally have been taken on by the banks with normal lending/qualification criteria in place.