Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism

4 ECONOMISTS THINK WE LIVEIN A FREE MARKETIn 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, Ha-JoonChang argues that modern capitalist economies are not freemarkets. ‘[T]he free market is an illusion’, he says. ‘If somemarkets look free, it is only because we so totally accept theregulations that are propping them up that they becomeinvisible’ (Chang 2010: 3 – emphasis in the original). He citeslaws against child labour and slavery, limits on industrialpollution and restrictions on the sale of alcohol, firearmsand medicines to demonstrate that ‘carefully examined,markets are revealed to be propped up by rules – and manyof them’ (ibid.: 4). He mentions goods and services thatcannot legally be bought and sold, such as human organs,illicit drugs, electoral votes, government appointments andlegal judgements. Furthermore, he argues that immigrationcontrols and minimum wage legislation mean that ‘all ourwages are, at root, politically determined’ (ibid.: 5).A free market is not anarchyChang has a point. Because the free market does notrequire central planning by government, it is easy to49