Do you think that a free market would create a huge social divide? Would that be bad?

[Lissy]

We had a much more free market before the 1920's when the great depression happened.
There WAS a huge social divide, but it got bigger. But, do you believe that the unfortunate children of alchohol or drug addict parents would be able to survive in a totally free, unregulated market?
Immegrants that moved here penniless did?
Or, does it just take an extrordinary amount of resolve that most of us aren't capable of?

Is a free market plausible if you believe in social equality? Why or why not?

[ekonomix]

The key is what you mean by free market.

If you mean that goods are allowed to be sold irrespective of where they were made without taxes/tariffs, then a lot of people would be better off. For example, if farmers subsidies are removed, farmers in the developed world would have to do something else, but farmers in developing countries will be able to earn more and consumers in the developed world will be able to buy their food for a lower price. Theoretically.

But where economic theory of trade fails is when you realise that most trade is not done by the farmers themselves, but by huge conglomerates who buy from the farmers, and sell to the market, they buy beans, corn, wheat, lettuce... They are so big as to be able to control prices, and extract a very fat margin in the process. As to the social divide, you only need to look at the huge salaries and bonuses the top executives give themselves to understand that the congloerates perpetuate and increase the social divide. (The average CEO in the US apparently gets 260x the salary of the average worker).

(It's the same thing with oil. Oil prices are rising more than necessary and coincidentally the oil firms (shell for example) are making their highest profits ever. Hence their cut, between the price the arab countries are being paid for raw oil, and the price you pay at the pump for refined gasolene has increased. They are able to do that because there are few of them and there is no competitive pressure to keep their profiteering in check).

Bottomline, the main reason why just allowing goods to move freely will not be that powerful in reducing the social divide is the presence of the huge MNCs that basicaly control trade. WIth that power, comes the money to buy lobyists and influence legislation.

In order to benefit fully from free trade, the power of these MNCs has to be broken, if that does not happen, then there is little hope for the social divide.

The only hope is hat if we as consumers want it to happen. We should be ready to buy certified fair trade products; there are labels that have started this movement, and if we rally want the social divide to get smaller, we have to put our money where our mouths are and buy these products.

[SDD]

Your premise that people are all equal is incorrect. Since a free market allows people to produce and consume according to their abilities and desires, it will naturally produce unequal results.

[BOBO]

Both Economix & SDD have legitimate answers. The problem of "divide" is found with in the socialism/communalism that has infested our republic.
The Nixon administration did not help matters when the anti merging laws(monopolies) were to an extent "modified" to state it politely. Economix is correct in his assessment about the multi national corporations(MNC's). The Nixon administration opened a whole new can of worms with that legislation. No longer were corporations held to NATIONAL law, as they quickly became INTERNATIONAL.
This led to international monopolising, or CLOSE to it where small competitors were simply "purchased" into the family. An example is America's natural resources. which are owned by the citizens of our country. Take our crude. The crude extraction companies SHOULD be BIDDING to our so called federal representatives for the RIGHT to extract the American citizens crude, & our representatives taking the LOW bid for the American citizens benefit.
Instead, international law/treaties(EPA) & other graft & extortion special interest groups have American crude(we are/were the fifth largest crude exporting nation in the world!) being sold abroad, while we purchase other countries crude & refined petroleum products. Of course in the EXCHANGE the crude/petroleum products are SERIOUSLY marked up by the international bankers(remember your fed reserve question & my international bankers answer?) & here in lies the answer to the "divide".
Until Americans take back our country from these people we will continue down on our decline until America is "just" another country. Of course there remains many other propagated problems also, morality/coveting, the religion of socialism/communalism, greed for attention/political power over others etc.
It's went far enough this time that it's gonna take a super Carpenter to rebuild this structure/country, in fact the whole world.