absent government regulation. The very text of the Constitution makes this clear
Article I Section 8 begins with the words The Congress shall have Power to
among those power one notes the following, each of which is in some way an infringement of an absolutely free market
lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises
regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes
establish . . . Uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States
fix the Standard of Weights and Measures
promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries
make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof
Absent these powers of Congress, one might have a truly "free" market but no environment in which business could occur. Instead we would have the dystopia of Chapter XIII of Hobbes' Leviathan, a chapter titled "Of the Natural Condition of Mankind as Concerning Their Felicity and Misery," in which absent commonwealth with laws restricting actions there would be the war of every man with every other man, in such condition
In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
There never has been a purely free market economy. The producers have always sought protection for their endeavors. The real political and economic questions have always been different: who decides what regulations and restrictions apply, who gets the benefits as a result of those regulations and restrictions. And since to fund the government necessary to enforce those restrictions, who gets taxed and how is the revenue for those taxes spent, on whose behalf?
Perhaps this is too subtle for a bumper sticker. Too bad most people never learn this during their studies. Our Founders knew the importance of regulation. Many of them benefited therefrom. Which is why the Constitution itself, rather than establishing a nation with a pure free-market economy provided for something very different.
Thoughts as we have embarked on the year of another national election.