I’m going to say a few things that those who believe in the free market as a sort of religion are not going to want to hear.
1. There is no “Invisible Hand.” That was just a figure of speech Adam Smith used to make a point. The free market is really just a collection of individuals making choices within a culturally-created system of punishments and rewards. There’s no magic, no ju-ju, just people looking at what other people are doing and trying to make money off it. The market is not “intelligent.” It is
not a collective Borg. It is just as prone to making bone-stupid decisions as really smart ones. For every tech boom there’s a tech bubble.
2. Enlightened self-interest sometimes isn’t. As often as not it’s just pure, unadulterated greed. If left unchecked, it will always feed the bottom line at the expense of resources, employees, investors, even the market itself. This is why the U.S. passed anti-trust legislation at the turn of the last century.
3. Jesus was not a capitalist. In fact the Bible, especially the New Testament, is awfully hard on the rich. Remember that camel-and-an-eye-of-a-needle business? Remember that bit where He turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple? All that stuff against usury and for the jubilee in the Old Testament?
4. Democracy and the free market are not synonymous. Historically, they have often coincided. But ask India about a certain British tea company and see what they have to say about the alleged link between the free-flow of capital and the freedom of The People. Note also that the fastest growing economy in the world right now is not the ostensibly free U.S. but the repressive and authoritarian “red” China. When it comes to keeping employee costs down, nothing beats a dictatorship. The stampede of American business away from the “free” American worker demonstrates that.
I know, it hurts to hear. But then, we were warned against false profits.
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