TRUTH IN CAPITALISM?

We keep hearing that the free market is the best way to organize production and consumption. But do its proprietors really believe that? If they did, wouldn't they be willing to give the people they deal with complete information about the deal? Like, wouldn't they tell a job applicant what they actually pay the other workers? Wouldn't your television tell you exactly how many minutes of commercials to expect in the next break, so you'll know whether you have time to nuke your dinner? Wouldn't your local merchant tell you the actual markup on his product, so you could decide whether it's worth it? The economists consider these deficiencies in information an "imperfection" in the market, but obviously it's just perfect for the people who profit by concealing the info.

For that matter, employers certainly don't want a really free labor market--a market in which people are free to refuse to work under inhumane conditions, even when those are the only jobs available. One of the reasons married women used to have a hard time getting decent jobs (back in the '50s and earlier) was that the employer presumed that a woman who was dissatisfied with her job would have no qualms about quitting, since her husband could support her. ( Now, of course, it takes at least two incomes to support a middle-class family, so that is no longer an issue.)

The only improvement in informative capitalism is that those who make products which can cause harm to the user or other human beings or (sometimes) the environment are now under legal pressure to warn the consumer, especially in the area of health-care. They don't always do it, but they are often sued (sometimes successfully) for not doing it.

I'm not crazy about capitalism, but I could live with a system of rational, completely above-board capitalism (one which recognized, for instance, that products which shorten human life are ultimately bad for business.) I don't expect to see one anytime soon, however.