Bernie vs. the cult of the free market

by CONOR LYNCH

In a recent column by the always pompous George Will, “What Bernie Sanders doesn’t understand about economic equality,” the conservative writer explains why the unwashed masses should quit being so envious, and shut up about economic inequality already (which just so happens to be at its highest level since the Great Depression).

In Will’s opinion, people make what they’re worth, and this whole movement rallying against income and wealth inequality in America (and the world) is simply growing out of envy, which, he warns, is one of the seven deadly sins.

“The fundamental producer of income inequality is freedom,” Will writes, “Individuals have different aptitudes and attitudes. Not even universal free public education, even were it well done, could equalize the ability of individuals to add value to the economy. Besides, some people want to teach, others want to run hedge funds. In an open society, rewards are set not by political power but by impersonal market forces, the rewards of which will differ dramatically but usually predictably.”

First of all, what Will really means in the first sentence is that “the fundamental producer of income inequality is economic freedom,” rather than freedom in a political sense, e.g. freedom of speech, expression, assembly, religion, etc. “Economic freedom” is another way of saying a free market, where, in an ideal form, the state stays out of almost all economic matters, except when it comes to the most basic enforcement of market rules, like property and contract laws. In other words, all regulations of private industry, whether they relate to the environment, consumer safety or worker rights, would be done away with for the sake of freedom (because what is freedom if not the freedom of a corporation to destroy the environment or abuse its workers?). For those who worship the free market, all of the defects of capitalism, which have historically been corrected or mitigated by the state, would eventually be solved by the market.

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http://www.salon.com/2015/10/20/bernie_vs_the_cult_of_the_free_market_why_the_right_wing_case_against_sanders_is_laughably_wrong/