Free Trade
Neoliberal ideology relies on the fantasy of free trade. The fantasy promises that an unfettered market benefits everyone. Why? Because markets are the most eficient ways of ensuring that everyone does what they are best suited for and gets what they want. Michael Lebowitz describes this faith: "The unfettered market, we are told, insures that everyone benefits from a free exchange (or it would not occur) and that those trades chosen by rational individuals (from all possible exchanges) wil produce the best possible outcomes. Accordingl)lj it follows that interference with the perfect market system. by the state must produce disaster-a negative-sum result in which the losses exceed the gains. So, the answer for al rightthinking people must be, remove those interferences:'19 Everyone benefits, not just some, all. The free market fantasy is that everyone wil win. To ensure that everyone wil win, the market has to be liberated, freed from constraints, unleashed to realize its and our ful potential. <sup>20</sup> As free rational agents armed with ful information, people will make the right choicesbut, again, only so long as nothing biases or constrains these choices, so long as nothing fetters the freeness of the market.
Four aspects of Slavoj Zizek's discussion of the role of fantasy in ideology are helpful for analyzing neoliberalism's fantasy of free trade. Zizek argues, first, that the "external ideological ritual. is the true locus of the fantasy which sustains an ideological edifice:'21 Fantasy isn't hidden underneath oficial statements and policies. It's not like some kind of trick or illusion duping the poor, gullible masses. Rather, fantasy is manifest in our actual practices; these practices, what people actually do, are the location of ideological beliefs. Neoliberal ideology focuses on trade, that is, on practices of exchange. The ordinary exchanges of everyday peoplecleaned up and understood as rational decisions made under ideal conditions-are trade. When neoliberals talk of free trade, most of us tend to imagine these individual exchanges. We might think of small farmers and local businesses or about how great it is to get to choose what we want from abundant, alluring consumer items. We might imagine lemonade stands or buying and selling on eBay. Only rarely and with great efort do we focus on banks, credit cards, subprime mortgages, structured debt vehicles, currency trading, or insurance companies' profit-oriented eforts to deny payment to those who have dutifuly paid their premiums for years. Neoliberalism.'s fantastic appeal stems in part from the way individual exchanges stand in for global flows {upward) of capital.
FREE TRADE
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