Writers need to be more careful when talking about terms they are not familiar with. The term "free market" does not mean today what the author thinks it means. The mom-and-pop economy he described is capitalist, but it is a competitive market, not a "free market". Capitalism is merely an economic system where the means of production are owned privately. Every small business owner is a capitalist. In a competitive market, firms cannot set their price, and in the long run profits are zero.

I find it interesting that many comments rail against competition as the evil in the capitalist system. The truth is the opposite, it is the lack of competition that distorts the economy.

The problem is when firms work to achieve market power, or monopoly power. This can be done in a variety of ways, including product differentiation, buying or otherwise eliminating competitors, or gaining market advantage through special privileges or contracts via political power. With market power a firm can artificially reduce output and raise prices in order to maximize profit.

The term "free market" today means a lack of government interference in the private economy, giving predatory companies free rein to gain "economic rents" however they can. Ironically, it is this market freedom that has allowed ours and the world's economies to be dominated and controlled by monopoly capitalism. And it is this obscene concentration in the market that has caused a grotesque level of income and wealth inequality.

The term "free market" does not mean what this author is saying.