The Free Market is a Myth: How Politics Actually Control the Economy
I want to speak with you directly today about the greatest illusion we are sold in modern society. We hear politicians, corporate media, and Wall Street executives constantly defending something they call the "free market." They tell you that if we just leave the market alone, it will naturally innovate, provide for everyone, and solve all our problems. Here on the socioeconomicmarket.com blog, we dig past the surface-level marketing to find the truth. I am here to tell you that the completely free market does not exist.
It is a fairy tale we are taught so we do not question the hands moving the pieces on the board. The reality is that the market cannot exist without the government. Without a central authority to enforce contracts, protect property rights, and mint currency, a market is just a chaotic barter system waiting to collapse. Because the market requires the government to function, and the government is controlled by politics, it is an undeniable fact that politics control the market.
The Engine of the Economy is Political
Think about the fundamental rules of doing business. If you buy a house or start a company, you rely on a deed or a corporate charter recognized by the state. If someone steals from your business, you do not call the "free market" to help you; you call the state-funded police. Our entire economic foundation is built on laws, regulations, and enforcement mechanisms created by lawmakers. Therefore, the market is merely a reflection of the political will of those in power.
When you realize that politics and the market are fundamentally the same thing, the world starts to make a lot more sense. The rules of the game are not handed down by a divine economic deity. They are written by lobbyists, debated by politicians, and signed into law by a government that is highly influenced by corporate capture. This means that market forces, while very real, are constantly being moved, directed, and manipulated by whoever holds political power. The economy is not a wild, untamed beast; it is a highly engineered machine.
The River of Money
To truly understand how this works, I want you to think of the market like a massive, powerful river. The water flowing through this river is the money, capital, and resources moving through our society. Just like water, money has a natural tendency to flow, seek paths of least resistance, and pool in certain areas. Left entirely to its own natural flow, this river will create its own bends, offshoots, and deep channels.
However, we do not leave rivers completely alone, and we certainly do not leave the economy alone. The political class acts as the engineers of this river. They have the power to build massive dams, redirecting the flow of wealth exactly where they want it to go. A corporate tax bailout or a massive subsidy is simply a political dam built to divert the water into the reservoirs of the ultra-wealthy. When they do this, the downstream communities—the working class and small businesses—are left with a dried-up riverbed.
Drinking the River Dry
You and I have lived through the consequences of this manipulation for decades. The people controlling the dams have become incredibly greedy. They aren't just redirecting the water to water their own crops; they are actively drinking the river dry. When wages stagnate but the cost of living skyrockets, that is the sound of the political elite siphoning the water out of your community. They extract the wealth, horde the capital, and tell you that the river is just naturally experiencing a drought.
But it is not a natural drought. It is a man-made crisis caused by policy choices, deregulation in the financial sector, and the enclosure of our resources. If we allow a few massive corporations to own all the water rights, the rest of the ecosystem dies. That is why it is our job—as a society and as active participants in our democracy—to regulate the flow. We need political engineers who ensure there is always enough water circulating for everyone to survive and thrive.
Supply, Demand, and the Forces of Nature
Now, I am not saying that basic economic principles do not exist. Supply and demand is basically a force of nature in markets, much like gravity or the water cycle. If there is a massive demand for housing and a deeply restricted supply, prices are going to surge naturally. You cannot simply legislate away the reality that people need things and that resources are finite.
However, just because supply and demand are natural forces does not mean we should surrender to them completely. We build shelters to protect ourselves from the natural force of a hurricane. Similarly, we must build political frameworks to protect society from the devastating extremes of unchecked market forces. There must be a deliberate, managed balance. If corporate monopolies are artificially choking the supply of housing or medicine to drive up demand, the government must step in to break the dam.
Taking Back the Flow
The goal should never be to destroy the river. We need flowing money, investment, and trade to keep society functioning. But the current political-economic arrangement is designed to funnel all the water to a handful of billionaires while the rest of us fight over the puddles. The market is working exactly as it was politically designed to work. To fix the economy, you have to fix the politics that govern it.
We have to stop repeating the myth that the market is a mystical, untouchable force. You have the power to demand that the river be redirected back into your community. We need policies that break up monopolies, empower workers, and ensure that the basic necessities of life are not hoarded by a few elite entities. It is time to tear down the artificial dams.
If you want to dive deeper into how our socioeconomic systems have been engineered against us, and how we can take back our power, you need to understand the full picture. My book, Farming Humans, breaks down exactly how the political and corporate elites manage our society like an agricultural harvest.
We can change the flow of the river, but only if we understand how the dams were built in the first place. You can find the book and support the movement at farminghumans.com. Stay awake, and keep questioning the market.
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