That is nothing more than capitalism demagoguery. The term "free market" does not mean what you seem to think it does in today's capitalism. While you may think it means more competition, it is in fact the opposite - the "free market" today means complete freedom from government regulation, such as anti-trust laws, which r3esults in all kinds of monopoly gouging, corruption, and government subsidies, and less competition. It means an explosion of negative externalities that are harmful to the environment, the climate, and public health.

NO, absolutely not, your claim that "Government has no place in the market". That is complete crap. To paraphrase your hero Reagan, unfettered capitalism is not the solution, unfettered capitalism is the problem.

How much government regulation is appropriate? Here is my set of guiding principles:

The level or degree of government involvement in the production of a good or service should be positively correlated with:

- the lower the price elasticity of demand for the product or service;

- the greater degree of externalization of the TOTAL costs of the production;

- the greater the degree of fraud, misinformation, or public harm that arises from the product or the production process.

We do all of these things informally already, such as with public utilities, emission and dumping regulations, and public safety regulations. IMHO, these need to be expanded. IYHO, they should all be eliminated. There is no common ground between us.