James Stoner has a good article today called “Does Economic Liberty Merit a Public Defense?” His point is that “despite the financial crisis, markets deserve a spirited public defense that acknowledges both their virtues and limits.” He discusses four essential things that free markets provide, and then outlines a few guidelines on regulation.
While I don’t agree with everything he says, it is a very helpful read. He makes the point that “pragmatism alone won’t be adequate to defend market freedom,” which is very true. People don’t only want what works best, but what is in itself best and provides an opportunity for meaning.
Substantial market freedom wins on both counts. It not only works best, but is an intrinsic good in its own right which in fact stems from what it means to be human. He states this very well in his fourth point:
Fourth and finally, the freedom of the market is valuable in its own right, not only for its consequences for material wealth or cultural development. As many have remarked, the ability to choose one’s own way in the world—to develop and share one’s skills or services, or to make and market a product or a work of art—is a mark of human dignity, a basic human right. Free markets are not the only locus for the development of talents, and not all talents are readily or rightly marketed, but many are served by access to the marketplace, and the freedom to choose how to develop one’s gifts is essential to the gifts themselves and only possible in a society with substantial market freedom.
(HT: JT)