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.