Friday, December 17

The Invisible Hand is a Gentle Hand

I am tired of hearing people say defame free market principles, and the idea that we will devolve into a savage society if the governments role in our day to day lives is reduced.

I am tired of people that say they abhore monopolies, yet support the largest, most intrusive monopoly of them all, the Federal Government

I just came across an essay by Sharon Harris that shoots straight at the heart of this bigger government hipocrascy.

The great economist Adam Smith wrote that a free society operates as if "an invisible hand" directs people's actions — in such a way as to serve the interest of the whole society.

That invisible hand is a gentle one. A free market is a gentle market. A free society is a gentle society. A cooperative, compassionate, and generous society. An abundant and tolerant society.

David Friedman, in his book The Machinery of Freedom, notes that there are only three ways to get something: (1) by trading, (2) by receiving a gift (from love or friendship), or (3) by force ("do what I want or I'll shoot you"). Honest, peaceful people operate in the first two ways. Criminals and the state operate by force, aggression, coercion.

The gentle invisible hand vs. the visible fist of force.


She nails it, it is as simple as force vs. freedom, and once force becomes dominate it is hard to remove peacefully.

Read the entire piece here.

2 Comments:

Blogger KarbonKountyMoos said...

Thanks for that article. I started to read it & decided to print it - all 13 pages!

I need more time for reading...

5:28 PM, December 19, 2004  
Blogger Living_on_the_Edge said...

I know what you mean. I need more time for everything, but I do set aside some quiet time to read at least 30 minutes everyday. I can get through quite a bit of reading over the course of a week.

8:12 AM, December 21, 2004  

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