Free Market Bulls & Bull By-Product

Many in the local business community unfortunately seem to equate 'free markets' with those that are or should be free to exploit profit opportunities and communities without regard to the impacts on those communities or societies in which they operate.

Fortunately, advanced civilizations and educated people recognize that is not a smart or safe mindset for society or for business, neither of which would really like a return to the Gilded Age or the Wild West. In those days, railroads, industry & banks prospered, but so did Jesse James, the Dalton Gang, Billy the Kid, Willy Sutton and Al Capone. It was those latter "entrepreneurs" who became the heroes of the common man, whose collective anger eventually brought about the regulatory reforms that reigned in the most outrageous tendencies of the "free market." Of course, that struggle continues anew with even greater urgency in today's global economy.

As Sonoma is historically an agrarian community, perhaps an agrarian analogy can convey the general rationale for maintaining community controls on the "free market:" Early man learned that (like successful modern businesses) powerful animals such as oxen, cows, horses and even elephants, if properly harnessed and controlled, could create much good for them and their communities. Even uneducated farmers knew enough to always keep them well-tended, safe and well-fed.

However, appreciating their destructive power, they were also smart enough to keep such animals corralled, fenced and tethered. They never allowed them to trample the children, rampage through the village or relieve themselves in the kitchen. To control the most unruly and dangerous of them or to regulate the size of the herd, castration was frequently employed. Occasionally, the village barbequed those whose trouble exceeded their utility.  For food, or just for the hell of it.

All good lessons for free-marketeers.