There seems to be ever increasing talk about communism vs capitalism, free markets, competition, etc.
I think more and more people are asking "what has the 'free market' done for me lately", and are open to other ideas. It's a dangerous road. I see it a bit like the "defund the police" movement, people admit that police are good in theory, but the reality is a lot of people believe the police will never actually do anything to help them, thus, they want tear most of the system down and start over. Likewise, everyone agrees a free market with competition is great, but they see that the people upholding our "free market" do a lot non-free-market things which will never benefit regular people.
What does it mean when the things that happen in a healthy free market aren't happening?
To be clear, there are exactly 0 communist politicians in the US.
You're creating a false dichotomy. It's not the capitalists vs the communists, it's the capitalists vs the slight less capitalist capitalists. The American left isn't communist, and it isn't even close. Even the closest politicians like Bernie Sanders cannot be considered communists.
> What does it mean when the things that happen in a healthy free market aren't happening
It means we don't live in a free market. Because a free market is bad, and nobody actually wants a free market. They want an almost free market. But of course child labor is bad, and poisoning your workers is bad, and also blowing them up on the railroad is bad, and then poisoning the water is bad too. And then giving your customers HIV (yes, real) is bad as well.
