So, you think we have a laissez faire economy?

A lot of people think that America has a genuinely capitalist economy. If you are one of those people who think that that be the case, then here are some things to think about. Remember, the definition of laissez faire capitalism is "hands off capitalism," which implies that the economy is generally unregulated:

• The market for education is almost as dominated by government services as any industry in a Communist society. The vast majority of education is provided by government agencies in America, so much so, that the cost for alternatives is prohibitively high because of the combination of property taxes for government schools and tuition for private schools that parents would have to pay.
• The government routinely bails out failing corporations, something that is anathema to capitalist economics, as it completely warps market forces and short circuits creative destruction.
• The government has absolute control over what medicines enter the marketplace, irrespective of what any patient wants.
• The government also controls the ability of private parties to buy whatever medicines they need via prescription drug laws.
  
• The government has the power to control what wireless devices enter the marketplace in the name of ensuring that they place nice with one another.
• The government puts mandates on a variety of industries for environmental reasons, telling them how they will build their products. Some of these cost consumers a considerable amount of money. Bottom line is that there is no choice here between buyer and seller.
• Through laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), there are significant regulations on what products may be created by computer software and hardware engineers. CALEA also puts a significant mandate on telecommunications companies.
• The government subsidizes most agriculture.
• The government provides health insurance to the poor in the form of Medicaid, thus creating a disincentive for health insurance companies to compete for that space.
• The government very heavily regulates the manufacturing, sale and ownership of weapons; most classes of weapons simply cannot be owned by private citizens.
• The government heavily controls the entire process of flying.
• The government has heavily restricted the construction of new oil refineries for ostensibly environmental reasons.
• Many jobs, such as cutting hair and driving a taxi, require expensive licensing from local and state governments.
• Many states don't allow retailers to sell hard liquor.
• An increasing number of jurisdictions won't allow private establishments to even have the option of allowing smoking on their property.
• Local and state franchising rules create barriers to entry for providers of TV and broadband internet services.
• Federal election laws have placed strong limitations on the ability of private citizens to buy and sell advertising, or even just throw up a homemade sign on their property, for a candidate of their choice.
• The federal government has aggressively attacked the Liberty Dollar, even though it was being explicitly offered as an alternative currency, not one meant to confuse people into believing that it was official currency.
• The Supreme Court, through the ruling in Kelo vs. New London, allowed local and state governments to seize the property of one party via eminent domain for the benefit of another party, so long as the other party can provide a greater "public benefit" in the form of increased tax revenue via the use of that property.
  

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of all of the ways that the government meddles with the economy. Some of these restrictions might not be entirely bad, such as preventing people from buying powerful antibiotics without a prescription because the overuse of these antibiotics by irresponsible parties (such as parents who scream "give him/her a pill" to a pediatrician) has damaged their effectiveness against certain infections. However, this list should give the undecided at least enough of an idea as to how regulated our economy is, that hopefully some people will be disabused of the idiotic notion that our economy has been "laissez-faire" for a long time.

Then again, if you're stupid enough to watch the Federal Reserve bailout of large banks and think that it's a capitalist conspiracy, maybe there is no hope for you.