There is no such thing as a free market. Never has been, never will be.

On one hand there will always be someone who wants to manipulate and control the market. On the other hand we've pretty well established by now that neurologically, the way that we expect consumers in a "free market" to behave doesn't happen. And between those two realities, the market is there to convince us, quite literally, that the market is fair, while making it as unfair as it possibly can.