What is "ethnic socialism"?... And "racial socialism"?...
If slavery is totally in conflict with the concept of a "free market", how come slaves were sold at the market square in towns in "free countries"? Ethnic socialism is a specific enforcement (and deprivation) of rights based on skin color and/or ethnicity. An example is apartheid. There is no such thing as selling slaves in a free country. Pure economic socialism is depriving the most productive, the hardest-working, most creative minds of their economic rights, according the value of "need".
If individual rights and the free market are so tightly related, how come women only got to vote in the 1920s and blacks in the 1960s? And why was it that only white male property owners were originally the only ones allowed to vote? And why was it that laws were enacted to prevent any one or any firm from "cornering the market"? And why can an employer fire someone for what they do on their own personal time?
What is a semi-free market? A semi-free market is a mix of economic freedom with certain state controls....be it controls of pricing, commerce, or controlling voting rights, etc. I can't answer why it took this country so long to abolish something as odious as slavery, and even longer to recognize women's rights.
If/when employers are dumb enough to fire individuals for what they do on their own time (assuming that it doesn't affect their performance), and if those individuals provided specific and sometimes unique value, then it is the employer that ultimately loses out. But let me turn this around....while I hate to see companies pulling stunts like that, keep it mind how difficult a position employers are in. They are investing time and money in hires, some of whom wind up leaving the minute they find greener grass.
Is one "middle class" if they have $10,000 in credit card debt and a $125,000 mortgage and they've lost their health insurance due to employer cut-backs and a family member takes gravely ill and the bills add up to $150,000 and are still adding up? Is that person still "free" in every sense of the word? These are terrible things when they happen. No one response will solve all of these problems. "Freedom" doesn't mean freedom from problems. That was the "promise" of socialism. It means freedom to pursue opportunities and keeping other avenues open.
Kevin
