I agree that the free market makes it possible for people to do all kinds of reprehensible things, like you listed. I guess, for me, it is a matter of the cure (massive government intervention) being worse than the disease.

We raised our children to live and let live. It is a rotten shame that everyone doesn’t live that way. But, I will still take my chances with what I believe to be the overwhelming majority of people who are good and decent, rather than to be ruled by a narrow group of politicians who are no more immune to impure motivation than anyone else.

I’ll concede that the problem with capitalism is capitalists (some of them). But, in the end, the available alternatives are far worse. For every “good” law that’s passed (anti-discrimination, say) there is an equally bad one (prison for drug “offenders”). Over time it becomes laws on top of laws on top of laws and a Byzantine tax code to finance it all.

Sigh.

Freedom, for all its warts, is still the best option. It’s just too bad more people can’t handle it.