Continued

I should mention how much free market romanticism is detrimental to sustaining a free market ethic.  The fact that the most direct way to establish property rights is by a prohibition on stealing and one on coveting should indicate that living within the restraints of a free market is not always a satisfying endeavor.  The libertarian impulse to equate the free market with sleeping around is delusional.  It is more like monogamy; you have to stay with what is yours and not wander.  It isn’t an accident that the restriction on stealing in the Ten Commandments is next to the prohibition of adultery.

But I’m not really concerned about an attempt to form a civilization around legalized prostitution.  I’m talking about free-market boosterism that preaches riches for all.

Can’t happen.

Yes, everyone’s standard of living can go up overtime in a free society.

But that is far different and a much less attractive claim.  It is more pleasant to dwell on the less common rags to riches stories and then pretend that what happened was entirely due to personal ability or commitment.

But not everyone can be rich at the same time because “rich” is, by definition, an observation that someone is above the economic average.

It is delusional to use “rags to riches” stories to get around this fact.  People with great ability and commitment do not necessarily find a way to make a fortune.  And many do come into a fortune without such ability or commitment.

So the possibility of “the American Dream” needs to be left out of any explanation of a free market. The false promise of “the American Dream” leads to politically manufactured booms that end in busts and lead to corporate fascism and then socialism.