> Food could be free and there'd still be malnourishment. It's necessary to look at a bigger picture when looking at the overall performance.

Hmmm ...

I'm talking about the whole economic system of production and distribution, the 'free market' (or whatever it is), so I agree with the second statement - I wouldn't throw the whole thing out, but it needs to be supplemented. It doesn't seem like much defense of the current system that radically changing one element of it, the price, won't achieve a perfect outcome (and I frankly doubt you mean it that way but I don't want to speak for you).

You seem strongly attached to the free market concept - what if another system worked better? What's more important, the people or the economic system which feeds them?

To be fair: I strongly support a 'free market' as a great tool for a great many use cases, but it's not a universal tool or panacea and it's not the goal; it's merely the means - my favorite one in the toolbox.

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Happy New Year Walter!

> You seem strongly attached to the free market concept - what if another system worked better?

None has yet, not even close. And it's not for lack of trying other systems. Me, I'm familiar enough with history to be disinterested in trying other schemes and risking mass starvation.

Keep in mind that Kansas in the 80s was known as the "Breadbasket of the Soviet Union". See "Ronald Reagan" by Broussard.

You didn't answer the question - not that you are on the witness stand, of course.

Many, maybe not you, seem to be much more interested in the ideology and forget about the people. There is not much interest in the 'details' - serious questions about, and thought and attention to, how real people are really faring. Some even sacrifice real people to their ideology; they defend the ideology at all costs, not the people.