How some think

[fpb]

This was actually published today, by a conservative commentator, as something worth saying in a discussion:

The truth is that we don't have a free market -- government regulation and management are pervasive -- so it's misleading to say that "capitalism" caused today's problems. The free market is innocent.

The amount of non sequiturs, false issues and sheer ignorance that underlie this passage is mind-numbing. And such a man is paid to write this, and people pay to read it.

P.S.: There are people on the opposite who are just as bad. But I tend to stay away from their stuff, and therefore get less instance of outright idiocy than I meet on the right.

Comments

[expectare.livejournal.com]

In this context, they are the same thing. The fact is most Americans use capitalism and free market to refer to the same thing, and the two are interchangeable in popular discourse. Assuming he's acting in good faith (difficult to tell for a political pundit), he just thinks they're synonyms and isn't trying a sleight of hand.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

But a pundit is not supposed to echo and refine the worst of popular discourse, but to raise its level and content. While there is no point for him/her in antagonizing his/her readers, the proper use of punditry is to sharpen and enlarge the terms of debate. If, instead of doint so, the pundit just repeats and hardens ill-grounded prejudices, s/he is betraying his/her position.

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

So why use both terms? Why not say

"The truth is that we don't have a free market.... so it's misleading to say that the free market caused today's problems. The free market is innocent."

Do you think he is seriously saying that because the US does not have an unfettered free market, that it doesn't have a capitalist ecconomic system?

[expectare.livejournal.com]

Yep. It might be hard for you to believe, but there is a substantial that believes that, say, the PRC has a more capitalist system than the US does.

[expectare.livejournal.com]

substantial *population