Today's NYT has an interesting article about the history of the idea of the free market. 
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/the-failure-of-rational-choice/?hp

There's a lot of discussion of freedom and the free market, but almost none of it considers the assumptions taken to begin the discussion.  Freedom is one of those loaded words that we have no choice but to believe in; and we best not let others define it for us or we may be giving assent to what we would not if we understood the history and implication of the concept behind the word. 

Some of the comments by NYT readers are great.