I was reading Alfred North Whitehead this morning (no big deal), and he said something back in 1933 that I had not quite thought about.  He said

 The early...faith that by the decree of benevolent Providence, individualistic competition and industrial activity, would necessarily work together for human happiness had broken down as soon as it was tried....No one now holds that, apart from some further directive agency, mere individualistic competition of itself and by its own self-righting character, will produce a satisfactory society.  - Adventure of Ideas, p 35

This is because as soon as industrialization hit and the free markets were allowed to run their course, everyone's life suddenly got miserable, right?  Immediately.  No one denies this.  Workers were abused, children were working 16 hour days, people were dying due to poor working conditions, pollution everywhere, complete destruction of anything resembling a natural landscape.  It was a pretty miserable chunk of history for your everyday working man.  From the very beginning, Whitehead says, pure capitalism without some sort of governmental oversight was obviously a horrifying idea.  He could tell that 75 years ago, and he says it as though it's something everyone implicitly knows.

So why are people still still pretending that it's true?