“Barter is one of a number of truly free-market exchange processes available to interested individuals. Some people use the term ‘counter-economy’ for this, to more clearly separate it from the gov-monitored and -approved mainstream economy: the economy where licenses and permits are required, where one is increasingly prohibited from working from one’s home; where taxes and subsidies interfere with prices; where taxes are stolen at many steps in the process of creating, distributing, and selling goods and services; where, ultimately, it is impossible to separate the state from the economy, because the latter is conceived of as originating from the former — and thus rightfully must be taxed, supported, analyzed, adjusted, planned, bailed out, databased, monetized, mined, prioritized, specialized … in short, thoroughly controlled. Seen in this context, though, it should be obvious that the terms are backwards. The market that is free of state interference is the real economy; the state’s version originated much later, and to the degree any statist version succeeds in thwarting, subverting, or eliminating free trade, it successfully counters the free market.” (01/02/09)