f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

Tim Sandefur of Freespace is “absolutely, completely, totally ” certain that the following sentence

is wrong:

“Markets are not the product of Mother Nature. They are embedded in institutions

and are at root political creations.”

The line comes from the thoughtful piece “Social Security and Antitrust,” written by (my friend and

former boss) Bert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute.  Bert states that free markets

can only continue to exist if government helps construct a social safetynet, which keeps the public

from rebelling against the insecurities that are inherent in a pure capitalist system — social protection

helps avoid economic protectionism.

 

  I’d try to summarize Tim’s logic, and his tale of inflation in China, but there really is no

logic — there’s only the ideologue’s certainty that he alone has the truth and that everything in the

universe (including every historic vignette and non sequitur) somehow proves he’s absolutely correct.

 

Tim’s right that supply and demand existed before governments.  But, free, competitive capitalist

markets — the kind Bert is talking about, and Tim so avidly seeks —  did not.   Human beings have not

always had free entry into the marketplace to buy and sell goods (and, of course, many still do not). 

Before governments helped delineate and enforce necessary rights and rules of fairplay, the person

or clan or tribe with the most power dictated how trade would be carried out, where, and by whom. 

 

Tim might insist “but people always had the urge to trade and the right to do so, from Nature,” but

“having” a right and exercising it freely are quite different things — as is having an urge and having a

functioning marketplace.  Bert Foer is correct that a free market doesn’t just happen and isn’t inevitable

or perpetual.  It takes governments to keep them working.  Admitting that government — and some limits

on unrestrained capitalism — are needed to have a working free market is a blasphemy against Tim’s

libertarian religion.  So, he’ll keep creating strawmen for his god to slay, and keep rejecting reasonable

dialogue with people he is absolutely certain are just plain wrong.  How sad and unproductive.  Tim’s

lucky to live in a land where the government will protect his right to spew such nonsense.  Or, maybe he is

large, powerful and rich enough not to need the government’s help.

Update (7 PM):  Want a headache?  Read Timothy Sandefur’s reply to this post.  

Despite Tim’s misdirection, Bert Foer is not saying that all economic rules and all

market forces are the product of government institutions.  Foer instead points out

that free markets don’t spring up naturally on their own, but need help from governments

to thrive (especially, if they are to be tolerated in a society where the popular vote exists).

 

Sandefur thinks he can rebut Foer and reality by asking a non-responsive question

(“what about inflation in China in the 1940’s?”), and then chastise us for not

following him through his Looking Glass.   (By the way, China’s inability to control

inflation in the 1940’s does not prove that free markets arise naturally.  And, our limits

on free speech — i.e., like falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater — do not mean

that free speech does not exist; it does mean that the body politic can endorse a

broad freedom from censorship without doing unnecessary harm to itself.)

 

“ekg F”  Sorry, Tim, defining every right in absolutes is adolescent.  Whining, and fantasizing

about other worlds in which macho supermen need no help from anyone, won’t convert the

unpersuaded.  Taxes pay for the infra-structure that makes it possible for the marketplace

and you to work and have a comfortable life.    You may hate government, but it can and

does help to secure a marketplace that is as free as possible, in a society that values all its

members, and stability, and its future.

• 
  
  Dear Frequent Visitor:  I promise this is the last post in which I will smack my head
  
  
  against the brickwall of Sandefurian Libertarianism.  I’m going to save my breath for
  
  
  actual two-way conversation.

 

in a sake cup
a flea
swimming! swimming!

 

a flea jumps
in the laughing Buddha’s
mouth

 

after plastering
the gate with fleas
the dog runs off

 

 

 

thrown together–
thin mosquitoes, thin fleas
thin children

 

Kobyashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

 

 

by dagosan:  

valentine’s sun

warms the kitchen —

tuna melt for lunch

                                       [Feb.10, 2005]