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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;V. Kurt Bellman, post: 1983728, member: 71723&quot;]Problem is, there are <i>almost </i>no such things as free markets any more. In my daily economic life, I encounter mostly protected economic classes who have carefully and meticulously protected themselves from being in the free market, though things like licensing, professional associations, authorized distributorships, taxi medallions, seniority rules, etc. etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now ... When I visit a coin auction, hooray, a vestige of a free market. It&#039;s like a little economic archeological find in a single room! Oh, except for the fixed percentage buyer&#039;s premium. See? They even destroyed the free market in auctions with a protectionist scheme.</p><p><br /></p><p>But anyone who tries to analyze anything beyond auctions based on the assumption of working in a free market, has already deluded himself to the point of self-disqualification to be taken seriously.</p><p><br /></p><p>In my adult lifetime, I have now witnessed the near-total destruction of what made my country &quot;exceptional&quot;, from the demise of truly free markets (which were already pretty endangered) to the destruction of core civil liberties and the disappearance of the modal jury&#039;s understanding of terms like &quot;presumption of innocence&quot;. That in itself would have been disgusting enough. But then to have to listen to a bunch of expensively quaffed blue suit, red tie, wearing buffoons throw &quot;American Exceptionalism&quot; around like an advertising slogan, instead of the cruel taunt it truly is, that&#039;s too much to bear.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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