[...] The neoclassical doctrine is basically a bald claim that distribution is somehow not a function of, or really even affected by, social power and property relations. Instead, we are told, who gets what is determined outside those processes, in the neutral, apolitical, and un-manipulatable field of the market. This is a critical step toward the idea that "the market" is "natural" and "disinterested"--the principal, maybe the only, basis upon which the word "market" can be paired with the word "free".