Sheldon Richman on Corporatism vs. the Free Market

In a page-one news story this week, The New York Times reported, "Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe." Sheldon Richman explains why those who advocate the freeing of markets have no reason to receive the news of the "mobility gap" defensively. If we are right about the breadth and depth of bureaucratic interference with the peaceful, creative activities of individuals, as well as the extent of government privileges for the well-connected, Richman writes, then drags on mobility are at least partly the consequence of that interference. In other words, the mobility gap can't be the result of the free market because there isn't one. The economy is systematically misshapen by government intervention.