When Good Intentions Warp Markets: The Hidden Costs of Tax ‘Relief’

Did We Make Capitalism Evil by Accident?

Nobody designed the desperation economy. It evolved — through layers of policies, competitive pressure, and individually rational decisions that produced collectively irrational results. This episode asks whether that makes it evil, starting from a listener's sharp challenge to the show's position. The 2008 financial crisis serves as the full spectrum in one event: a homebuyer who can't say no to shelter, a rating agency paid by the companies it rates, and a system that hid $70 trillion in risk from public view. Most of it wasn't intentional. Some of it — like the Sackler family targeting communities already in pain — was. The distinction matters because it determines whether you need better rules, clearer boundaries, or real accountability.

A Desperation-Driven Economy: Why Markets Aren’t as Free as We Think

In this episode of De-Riggable, Ben and Steve name a force that quietly sets prices across the entire economy but rarely gets called what it is: desperation. Not demand. Not preference. The inability to say no without harm. Through the story of a bagel-shop worker forced to choose between healing a leg ulcer and paying his bills, they show how desperation suppresses wages, concentrates profits upward, and spreads inequality through the whole system. When people can't refuse a bad deal — whether that's low wages, unsafe conditions, or unaffordable healthcare — the market isn't discovering value. It's extracting it. The conversation also moves through why reaction isn't the same as understanding, how money functioning as political speech distorts democracy, and why policies that cut food, housing, and medical support only deepen the cycle. But the core claim is simple: a market isn't free if people can't say no. De-rigging the economy means removing desperation at the bottom — not adding more regulation on top of it. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Read Steve's A True Free Market⁠⁠ [https://www.amazon.com/True-Free-Market-Conversations-Economics-ebook/dp/B07949WD3S/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RF9KOTPVYBH0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hyamTLslGvBaoHkyHSa-aA.EVmNVnd3RTTIyCDE35zP8XhH-V46vspTHyd5k3Jv60g&dib_tag=se&keywords=a+true+free+market+stephen+taft&qid=1764001775&sprefix=a+true+free+market+stephen+taft%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1]

When Money Talks Too Loudly

What happens when the loudest political voices belong to whoever has the most money? In this episode of De-Riggable, Ben and Steve argue that one of the most dangerous ideas in modern politics is the claim that money equals speech. Money is a tool for facilitating trade. Speech is a tool for facilitating democratic debate. When those two worlds collide, political influence becomes a commodity—and the result can look a lot like pay-to-play governance. The discussion moves from corporate influence and lobbying to deeper questions about knowledge and truth in the age of social media and AI. Why do people reject evidence? How do echo chambers distort reality? And why does the scientific method remain our best defense against confirmation bias? The takeaway: capitalism can be a powerful economic engine—but when its tools start deciding political outcomes, democracy itself begins to warp. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Read Steve's A True Free Market⁠⁠ [https://www.amazon.com/True-Free-Market-Conversations-Economics-ebook/dp/B07949WD3S/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RF9KOTPVYBH0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hyamTLslGvBaoHkyHSa-aA.EVmNVnd3RTTIyCDE35zP8XhH-V46vspTHyd5k3Jv60g&dib_tag=se&keywords=a+true+free+market+stephen+taft&qid=1764001775&sprefix=a+true+free+market+stephen+taft%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1]

When Markets Need Rules: Distortion, Disruption, and the Dark Side of Purity

This week on De-Riggable, Ben and Steve try to pin down a slippery word: distortion. They separate “disruptions” (like hurricanes and broken ports) from enduring distortions we create through policy—especially laws that tilt markets long-term. Along the way, they wrestle with a thorny case: price gouging. Is outlawing it a distortion, or a moral guardrail that protects communities during crises? From there, the conversation expands into subsidies—green energy, oil and gas, and the hypocrisy of calling one “market manipulation” while ignoring the other. The biggest twist: climate change isn’t framed as an economic debate at all, but as a survival and national security issue—because large-scale disruptions become permanent global instability. They end by zooming out: why America treats capitalism like a religion, how “economic fundamentalism” resists adaptation, and why China’s willingness to violate capitalist purity helped it become a solar manufacturing powerhouse. The core question: which distortions protect society—and which quietly rig the game? ⁠⁠⁠Read Steve's A True Free Market⁠⁠ [https://www.amazon.com/True-Free-Market-Conversations-Economics-ebook/dp/B07949WD3S/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RF9KOTPVYBH0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hyamTLslGvBaoHkyHSa-aA.EVmNVnd3RTTIyCDE35zP8XhH-V46vspTHyd5k3Jv60g&dib_tag=se&keywords=a+true+free+market+stephen+taft&qid=1764001775&sprefix=a+true+free+market+stephen+taft%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1]

When Good Intentions Warp Markets: The Hidden Costs of Tax ‘Relief’

Ben and Steve use this episode of De-Riggable to explore a truth most people sense but rarely analyze: every tax rule distorts something. Focusing first on Texas’s new homestead exemption increases — including expanded breaks for homeowners 65+ — they examine how incentives shift for both long-time residents and younger families trying to enter the market. Reduced property taxes for some mean higher relative burdens for others, and the renters — who already hold the least wealth — are left out entirely. Steve then compares this to New York’s rent control dynamic, where entrenched tenants stay is an episode about how systems drift, break, and maybe can be rebuilt. ⁠⁠Read Steve's A True Free Market⁠ [https://www.amazon.com/True-Free-Market-Conversations-Economics-ebook/dp/B07949WD3S/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RF9KOTPVYBH0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hyamTLslGvBaoHkyHSa-aA.EVmNVnd3RTTIyCDE35zP8XhH-V46vspTHyd5k3Jv60g&dib_tag=se&keywords=a+true+free+market+stephen+taft&qid=1764001775&sprefix=a+true+free+market+stephen+taft%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1] Note: Steve quickly learned there is no income tax in Texas, like there is in New York, but his point remains valid in the creation of unintended consequences, in general.