there are free markets al around us, since a free market is defined by a lack of government subsidies and government price controls.
every thursday in the summer and every weekend all year long i engage in free market activity at the farmer's market. \
i pay $50 a day for my stall, and can sell my vegetables and herbs for any price i choose. i could charge $50 each for my tomatoes, or i could charge a penny a dozen, and only the willingness of my customers to pay my price determines how many i sell.
i get no subsidies, and prices are determined solely by me, the producer/retailer.
diamonds also operate in a free market, with the prices determined solely by the producers, and what the market will pay. same with silver and gold, lettuce, turnips, tree nuts, lumber, furniture etc...
norway has a strong socialist system, restricting prices, levying heavy taxes and redistributing the wealth as the government chooses. they do a good job of controlling their markets and restraining capitalism's excesses, but they also restrain the ability of anyone who tries to get too far ahead of the curve, but they still engage in capitalism extensively. they likewise do a good job overall restricting the excesses of socialism, but this balance is tenuous at best, and if the pendulum swings too far in either direction their economy can easily collapse.
all centrally planned economies have one thing in common, they require a free market someplace to trade with or they become an isolated basket case like cuba where only the black market is free, and everybody is pretty eqiually fucked, except the top tier party apparatchiks, who always do well, or North Korea which is basically an autocratic monarchy with a splash of communist rhetoric to confuse the proles.
free markets tend to be healthy markets, with producers and buyers all enjoying the fruits of the market forces, until supply or demand outstrip their counterbalance.
compare modern market economies today to any other system and you will find no more equitable distribution overall save egalitarian tribal groups which are pretty much what marx describes as "Primitive Communism" but even those only work in small groups with strong social and familial ties.
even if you fall below the "Poverty Line" in america you are at no risk of starvation, youre unlikely to freeze to death in winter, and most likely live in a manner which would be considered the height of aristocratic luxury to medieval peasants.
we dont even realize how good we got it till we look at Somalia or North Korea.
why do you think all these mexicans, cubans, chinese, etc go through so much shit just to get to america? it's not so they can sit in a shitty camp outside wall street and chant for anarchy or socialism.