Sen. Shirley Turner's LTE in WSJ, April 14, 2005 243

On Sat, 16 Apr 2005, R. Martin

I think the question ("So, you...?") needs to include a big footnote on the definition of "free market." A few caveats-issues-questions that I would include on that definition includes: i) "free for whom?", ii) under what circumstances? and iii) what effect(s) would it have on all the parties involved. Certainly all of the WalMarts out there sure seem to me to be the most free to stomp out compebreastion (viz. all the stores closed wiped out by brutal WM pricing) and drive down wages (at least as much as it drives down retail prices) and Microsoft seems to be the most free to exploit its monopoly on its software for its a) financial enrichment despite its b) own weak performance and lower than innovation from elsewhere and its c) crushing and destroying compebreastion by virtue of its unfair monopoly.

There are many other examples where that "free" market is not free at all. All large corporations have an economy of scale that unfairly benefits them in certain business circumstances. If there is a legal issue, a small and low resource business will, in most cases, not survive a legal attack from a large corporation.