Things would be back to the days of the company store in no time. Sigh.. better explain that to the great right-wing economists. Mines and other companies isolated workers so they could only buy food and such at the overpriced stores they monopolised. Allowing them credit meant that people never built any savings and were usually hugely in debt to their employer. Functionally slaves.
You're moving the goalposts now. How do you prevent the creation of monopolies and the practice of blatant price collusion without government intervention?
The thing frustratingly few on the right seem to take into account is the 1950-1970 rosy period was because Europe and Japan were re-building after the war and the US had no competition, just customers. If America was great then it was only because of exceptional circumstances. All they remember was an easy life.
On a national scale, there is virtually no such thing as a free market. Small local markets can be, on occasion, essentially free markets, but often not for long.
It is in the definition. I asked for you definition. I was not advocating for anything really. I know the debate. There is no one answer. It was part of my major.
In addition to the US being great because we had great people who emigrated here and lived here and the rule of law and good govt... Lets get back to reality.. American crushed it after the WW II in part because the bankers were also scared of the Soviet Union. They / we needed America to be strong.... so it was. After the fall of the Soviet Union the extraction of American began in earnest. Assets went out people went in. The extraction did not happen by accident.