Thanks for trying to read it anyway. If you do a search on Walras, general equilibrium, you're bound to turn up a Wiki article. It's probably not worth your time though. The bottom line is no true "Free Market" can exist for long other than on perhaps a small scale locally. So when someone says "whatever happened to Free Markets?", the answer is "They never existed in the first place."
And it would be taking a big risk to depend on me to get us out of a jam in South Central L.A. without money or other resources other than brain work. This reminds me of a true story however, where operating my brain on auto pilot did the trick to get me out of a threatening situation. Late at night walking home on a dark street, as I neared my driveway gate, I became aware that someone was following me. A large person suddenly appeared to my left and said "Hey dude" (Actually I thought they said something else, but later I realized that is what they had said.) I turned toward them, and when I realized that I did not recognize this person I kept on walking. Then suddenly a much shorter person who looked to be perhaps late Junior high or Early High School Age appeared next to me on my right and was matching my steps. All of a sudden this smaller person, when I was maybe only ten feet from my driveway, swung his fist at my head hitting me squarely on the nose. Without thinking and going on instinct, I stopped dead in my tracks, looked down at the individual that had just socked me and said, rather emphatically and sternly, as a school teacher might in admonishing a child, "What is the matter with you!" I suppose this is not at all the reaction he was expecting. I then turned and walked directly to my driveway gate. I did not quicken my pace or run. At my gate I looked back to see if my assailant was still there. He was not, and neither was his large buddy. They had both faded into the night. I suppose this was their unsuccessful version of the "knockout game." I did get a bloody nose out of the encounter. Had I had anytime to think I would have reacted differently and possibly with far worse results..
When a businessman uses the term "free enterprise" he may be using it as a substitute term for laissez faire, just as he may substitute the term "free markets" for laissez faire, meaning virtually the same thing in each case, i.e., the operation of a business without interference from government. But to the lay public the term "free enterprise" can mean something quite different, namely the freedom to enter a market and compete on level terms with other market participants. This duel meaning of "free enterprise" has been the source of much unnecessary disagreement in discussions.
