Why is the United States economy considered free market/capitalist ?
A ‘free’ market is impossible. The state has always been needed to intervene and keep capitalism at a relative equilibrium through whatever means – economic stimulus, ensuring private property is respected (policing), legitimizing the system (democracy), mediating between capital and labour. Incidentally, the modern state was created for this very purpose. But the US certainly is capitalist, as it is driven by a need to accumulate value. But then again every other country in the world is, by this logic, capitalist too. The trick is to recognize that ‘free market’ and ‘capitalism’ are not synonymous. You can have a heavily regulated market but still rely on capitalist accumulation (China, Cuba) or you can attempt to be ‘more free’ by ********* economic regulation away as much as possible (Ireland and Iceland are good examples of why this is a bad idea). You can even have a completely closed, state run dictatorship over the market like the USSR did, but as long as there are other capital
