True, and always in need of reminding, from Richard Ebeling, former president of FEE:
Free market capitalism makes the consumer “king” of the marketplace who determines whether businessmen earn profits or suffer losses, based on what they decide to buy and how much they are willing to pay.
It is free market capitalism that helps make each man and woman a “captain” of their own fate, with the freedom about what work and employment to pursue, and the liberty to spend the income they earn in their own personal, desiring way to live the life they value and want, and that gives meaning and purpose to their own life.
No person need put up with humiliation, abuse or disrespect from a bureaucrat or political official who has control over their fate through the power of government planning, regulation and redistribution.
Free market capitalism offers people opportunities and choices as consumers, workers and producers, with the liberty to change course whenever the benefits from doing so seem to outweigh the costs in the eyes of the individual.
Free market, or laissez faire, capitalism makes this all possible because it rests on a deeper political philosophical foundation based on the idea and ideal of the right of the individual to his own life, to be lived as he desires and chooses, as long as he respects the equal right of others to do the same.
Via Protect Yourself from the Crony Capitalists @ Daily Reckoning.