"Democracy" and "market economy" are in no way synonymous. The Nazis and Mussolini both ran systems with lively market economies, as do most of the dictatorships in Latin America.

The linking of democracy inextricably with free market economics is a mythology touted by those who are profiting most from the monopolies that largely control the so-called "free market" economies.

Many Americans are gullible enough to believe such mythology, since they hear it from the time they are toddlers. It's actually a form of money-based religion, and is accepted as blithely and thoughtlessly by its adherents as are most fundamentalist religions.

- LH