There is no country that has followed a complete free market ideology and has been successful(Virtually no government other than law enforcement, little or no regulations, etc. Basically a libertarian dream). None of the experiments have delivered better standards of living.

Somalia is an example of a state with a weak central government - Complete failure.

Argentina privatized pretty much everything a little while back - Failure. The economy collapsed, poverty rose to 50%, and is now down to 25%(I think, havn't checked). Still above pre-privatization/de-regulation levels.

Chile's experiment was forced upon the population with the point of a gun(Hardly freedom that libertarians blabber on about), and while has resulted in greater economic growth, has also resulted in greater levels of poverty and falling real wages for most of the population. Much of the growth that was achieved was after some of the privatizations and changes were reversed.

The best emperical results come from a mixed economies with state intervention and the free market. Extreme forms of government don't work. The communist system is a failure, so is the libertarian model. Anything that blames all problems on one thing (Capitalism or Government for communism and libertarianism) is a weak simplistic model that is doomed to failure.

Bobalot is absolutely correct. The argument for a free market is basically we want sunny days so we throw out rain coats and umbrellas. The problem with ideology is that humans can only contain one abstract thought at a time and even by drawing up matrices and tables there is no way of including chaos into the ideology. I think freemarket ideology as has been implemented in the Australian context is unique from other ideologies. The freemarket is not only sold as an economic panacea to make all people well off, communism has the same argument.The free market is a 'be all and end all' ideology. Where as other ideologies are processes of revolution, the means to a goal- the free market is the goal. When the freemarket inevitably fails there is no light at the end of the tunnel , indeed some escape options become extinct.
I wonder if the dominance of the freemarket ideology has anything to do with the doom outlook of many these days. Closing hospitals neccesitate cheaper witch doctors and faith healers. Industries become extinct creating localised hopelessness and market failure polarises entire communities. Social justice degrades, governments become irrelevant and so justice breaks down.

Actually this Globalisation movement is really no different from Communism.It gives too much power to big business and that enslaves us all.