Here's a Tom Hartmann quote (http://www.truth-out.org/stop-them-eating-my-town65481 ) that quite succinctly captures the exasperating arrogance (and maleficent ignorance) of "free-market" ideologues:
--In the worldview of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, everybody in the world is motivated purely by “self-interest.” There are the “smart” people pursuing their own self-interest (also known as “the rich”) and the “lazy” people pursuing their own self- interest by using an instrument of force (government regulations, minimum-wage laws, collective bargaining laws, and the like) to extract wealth from the “smart” people for themselves. These latter people are labeled by Randians and Friedmanites as “parasites” or “moochers.”--
There was a time when an argument could be made that such "smart" (which today simply means amoral) people were entrepreneurs, inventors, people with useful ideas who were motivated to implement those ideas and make life better for others...and the more they succeeded in doing so, the wealthier they become. That still may hold true for some. But in general, since the age of Reagan (an epoch we continue to wither in), the majority of those "smart" folks are simply the sly, cunning, amoral ones. Quite often, absolute shitheads.
...and thus the downfall of the American economy, the "American dream"...and American-style capitalism throughout the world.
