Certainly, no one can buy a product they don't know about, but the free market myth conflates the market and marketing. The market is supposed to decide which product deserves to be marketed. Those products that aren't advertised well must be somehow flawed. Otherwise, the market would have supplied the seller with the needed advertisers. The whole thing is supposed to be a meritocracy.

So I think free market ideologues would have to deny that Marketing 101 lesson. The free market is supposed to solve all economic problems. All economic transactions reach equilibrium if left alone to work themselves out.

Why, then, would the best product in the world languish on the shelf? If it was created in a cave or a basement somewhere, it wouldn't be part of the economy. But marketers are supposed to be actively looking for businesses that need their help. So where are the marketers spreading the word about Kim's miraculous art?

The thing is, Kim has got the word out. Kim's on YouTube and he travels the world doing his amazing artistic demonstrations. I think the fault lies rather with the lack of demand, for the reasons I state in the article.

Of course, better marketing might improve his chances. I don't see his face on magazine covers, for example, but the reason for that is that he's not so photogenic. Again, the underlying problem would be one of demand: we're superficial so we prefer folks with sex appeal. Lipstick on a pig would take you only so far.