Autolycus,

The chances that a farm will be subsidized is inversely related to the size of the farm. The subsidy programs are designed for large monoculture farms that raise a few favored crops, corn in particular. Mixed farms, especially small farms that practice sustainable agriculture, usually either don't qualify or, if they do qualify, find that the "red tape" makes the subsidy unattainable. As far as I know, at our local farmer's market, none of us get any subsidies. (I'm not complaining about that - I don't want subsidies -my complaint is that our large competitors do get subsidies.)

Is the U.S. free-market? I grow organic food, but it is a crime for me to label it "organic" because I don't have certification. I don't produce enough to make obtaining certification worthwhile. My neighbors have a dairy. People want to buy milk directly from them, before it is pastuerized and homogenized. They can't, because it is a crime to sell raw milk in this state. Last summer, we considered selling watermelon halves at the market, because many customers can't eat a whole one. It is a crime, so we didn't. It would cost far more than our profits to get the necessary permits. Our potential customers get their watermelon halves at WalMart, which can afford the red tape. We are only partially free.

Better half-free than unfree. We have enough economic freedom to make our prosperity the envy of most of the world's population. The economic migrants continue to pour in. Even in the current housing "crisis", 99% of American homes are NOT in foreclosure. Our highways remain crowded with gas-guzzlers and RVs. (Not surprising, considering that our gasoline is still cheap by European standards.) Though I am a physician, I have never seen an American child with marasmus or scurvy or kwaishiorkor or even rickets. Most of my poor patients have indoor plumbing, a phone, and a car. These items would mark them as middle-class in not a few countries. Many even have computers with internet access, cell phones, air conditioners, and cable tv, items which, not many years ago, were available only to the rich. We are "hurting" relative to the economy we would like to have and we are "hurting" relative to the economy we could have, but there are hundreds of millions who would love to have the prosperity that even our poor people have.

Kent