How many people have a choice though when it comes to say MS and their locked in proprietary formats that you may need for work or to communicate with other businesses? The so called "free market," is empirically actually quite a bit less free than idealist Libertarians state it is. Much like Communism pure Libertarianism looks good on paper, and in practice? Not so much...
And p.s. have fun driving on government paved roads, and eating your lunch which is poison free thanks to FDA inspections, and withdrawing money from your government propped up bank because free market capitalists were so Fing stupid about about "commercial paper," while you bitch about the terrible, horrible, government.
Anyone who is actually paying attention to the way the world actually works and who doesn't have an ideological axe to grind realizes a mixed economy that preserves competition, but that also has regulations like Glass Stegall, environmental regulations, and a basic social safety net is more stable, sustainable, and provides a better quality of life for it's citizens. Communism vs. laisez affair capitalism is a false dilemma for neither of those has been shown to work by history. A mix of small businesses, co-op, and regulated big businesses with unions and a social safety net OTOH seem to come through with both the innovation that the market drives and a decent sustainable standard of living for all.
Europe ring a bell?
Hopefully all you net.libertrains.greed.greed.greed learned something about the fallibility of markets in the last 24 month of market crash fail. You so called conservatives do care about stability and prudence don't you ala Edmunde Burke, don't you? Or is your dirty little secret that you call yourself "conservatives" but are really advocates of unstable constant churning change?
Make sure to say hi to the kids in Bhopal and Shell's Nigeria the next time you genuflect before large corporations.
K, thks, by