@Girl_Scout

"I am the outlier"

Correct. Because you are willing to bear a cost to uphold your preferences and principles. That's a good quality to have.

Too many people are out there whining about this or that company doing something they don't like...and then buying from them. How many people "hate" Amazon...but have a prime subscription, endlessly buying luxuries?

Part of the beauty of capitalism is that you can vote with your wallet. The price? People need to be principled to do so.

@AlexanderKingsbury Wow this is one of the best answers I have heard in a minute. People usually just get mad and call names!

I must disagree with manipulative nature of these gatekeepers. The lack of "free market" in the free market.

You cannot vote with your wallet when your device IS society's wallet. What good are principles when vendors do not accept cash?

I do not admire people with a game-score hoarding condition stagnating the economy y'all insist upon pretending is natural or real.

@Girl_Scout

If you want to complain about the markets we have not being free enough, great. I want MUCH more free markets than we have. But, to me, the solution is "make the markets free", not "destroy the free market".

As to vendors not accepting cash...that's a relatively tiny fraction of society. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but even when it does...that's more of a "vendor does not want to associate with me because I only have cash" thing. I generally prefer voluntary interactions.

@AlexanderKingsbury ... cont...

It is nowhere, in any sense of the terms a "free" market. It is a monied market and WORKING people do all entirely all the labor and creating.

Come to think of it -- what risk does a "rich" person even take? The rich man loses a digital game score.. the "working" man loses 7 kids because they couldn't afford any of the procedures to prevent kids.

@Girl_Scout

There are sectors of the market that are free, for all practical purposes. When I buy tamales out of a cooler being pulled in a wagon down the street by an old woman....I'm gonna go way out on a limb and guess she doesn't have a license for that. What we are doing is essentially unregulated.

@AlexanderKingsbury that tamale lady can get arrested and deported for her "crime."

How in the world does that look like freedom to you?

That's not freedom to enter the food-business; that's dodging pigs to hopefully make a buck for TP, or her grandkids' pads.

That is the practice of anarchism. That is disobeying the laws that are preventing her from actually participating in the "free" market.

@Girl_Scout

Yes, she CAN get arrested. But she is not (and no, you can't get deported for selling food without a license). Functionally, we are engaging in free trade.

I have no interest in dehumanizing others. Please let me know if you ever decide you feel the same. Until then, have a nice day.