>The historical reality is the more free a free market is, the better it performs.
Citation VERY MUCH needed. A free market leads to monopoly and abuse. It does not lead to competition, it does not lead to better long-term results, it leads to corruption, market capture, and oppression.
The United States, postwar Japan, postwar Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, S Korea, China, and so on.
How do you explain the scores of millions of people that came to the US, and still come, if the US free market is a hellhole of monopoly, abuse, corruption, and oppression?
The united states during its periods of greatest growth as well as the other environments you called out had strong regulatory environments to keep "the market" in check
I suspect you may be thinking that a free market is anarchy (no government). It isn't.