| The Free Market System |
| The free market is not the common possession of all. Like the vast bounteous lands of the Earth, it has been conquered and is ruled with a rod of iron by strong ruthless invincible aggressors. |
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Millennia of unchecked accumulation on the part of some, and the consequential dispossession of others, has culminated in the extreme polarisation of wealth we see in the world today. The real resources of life - the land, the minerals and the energy reserves of Planet Earth - are now owned by a faceless few who have built a protective wall around them - a bastion between the dispossessed and their birthright. It's called the market. Through it, we may buy but not possess, use but not control, eat but not grow, visit but not stay, live but not prosper. To common man of the modern world, the market is the only means he has of transforming his labour into the needs of life. To survive, he can exchange what he has for what he needs only via the market.
However, that faceless few, and the establishment which serves them, will argue that the market provides everybody equally with what the possession of land, minerals and energy resources once did: namely the `means of transforming' one's work into wealth. But the market, they say, does the job much better by allowing people to specialise completely while benefiting fully from the skills of others. Furthermore, they say, unlike the natural resources of Planet Earth, the market cannot be carved up and bought: one cannot purchase a market share. One can only win a market share and hold onto it by providing the best products and services in fair competition. Since people always will have a wide range of needs, a fair return for one's labour is always guaranteed. So as in a communist state where all the real wealth-generating resources are commonly owned, so too in a market-based society the one single wealth-generator - the market - is in effect commonly owned by all. All are deemed equal before the market.
If such a system were fair, then I submit that any artisan, of any trade, provided his work were of an acceptable standard, should by right have an equal share of his market sector with all the other artisans of his trade. I submit further that such a market system should include mechanisms to ensure that this is what happened so that everybody's needs of life are assured.
But this is not what happens. This is not what has happened. What has happened is that centuries of unchecked accumulation on the part of some, and the consequential dispossession of others, has culminated in the extreme polarisation of market share we see in the economy today. The real market - where the fruits of human effort are exchanged for the needs of life - is now also effectively owned by that faceless few who have built a wall around it - a mechanism which ensures that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It's called the limited liability company. This is the second bastion which now separates mankind from his natural birthright.