> There are no free markets

Good? Things like crypto and the current usa administration should have thought us that completely free markets are ripe for corruption and insider trading. None of that produces anything, and merely concentrates and ties together power and capital.

> As it becomes regulated, the monopolies become entrenched, innovation slows, homogenization is enforced, and products undergo a diminution in quality as monopolies needn’t compete

All of that happens because we let the monopolies do the regulation, and limit and block any antitrust action.

When people talk about a "free" market, they mean "free as in fair".

When billionaires talk about "free" market they actually mean "free as in deregulated".

You don't get "fair" without regulation.

I don’t think you have contradicted his point here. Purely “free markets” are just as much of an illusion as “capitalism.” At the same time, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t valuable ideas.

“Freer” markets (for some definition of free) are certainly possible. Deng liberalized China’s markets, and despite persistent and heavy state influence, it has much freer markets today than under Mao. This has been great for the Chinese economy and raised a billion people out of poverty. One could argue that this wouldn’t have happened without state direction, but you can’t ignore the effect of liberalization.

In the US, we have been gradually restricting the freedom of the productive parts of the economy, often by subsidizing scams that put legitimate competitors out of business, or allowing monopolies or private equity to destroy them despite rules intended to protect fair competition. At the same time, we have let scam industries off the leash, and they are free to basically commit open fraud with no controls. It’s a kind of freedom, I guess.

> When people talk about a "free" market, they mean "free as in fair".

> When billionaires talk about "free" market they actually mean "free as in deregulated".

> You don't get "fair" without regulation.

Correct in theory, but you have another definitional problem here.

When people talk about “regulation”, they mean protecting people and businesses against predatory behavior through fair legislation.

When modern politicians talk about “regulation” they mean handouts to friends, government guaranteed monopolies through regulatory moats, and rules designed to harm perceived opponents.

We have a real problem here and it’s going to take some serious effort to fix it before it becomes an issue of “who and whom.”