Faith in the perfect efficiency of the free market only works out over the long term. In the short term we have a lot of habits that serve as heuristics for doing a good job most of the time.
For those like me that don't know the joke:
Two economists are walking down the street. One of them says “Look, there’s a twenty-dollar bill on the sidewalk!” The other economist says “No there’s not. If there was, someone would have picked it up already.”
Competition is what creates efficiency. Without it you live in a lie.
... and even then it doesn't always prove true.