Since you are reading this on a computer it is safe to say
that, as ruggedly independent as you think you may be, you overwhelmingly make buy choices over make choices. As a result you trade your property (time and money)
for what for you, you hope, is someone else’s property (time or material goods)
that is of at least equal value to you. Since you don’t (nor do any of us) have
the means to assess, enforce, (freedom
to) the quality of these transactions you are protected by a blizzard of
standards and regulations (freedom from)
that allow us all to conduct these transactions with piece of mind.
You go out most days and earn your daily bread. When you actually buy the bread you can be
sure that it is the pound of bread you expect it to be because we have a Bureau
of Weights and Measures that has long since set a standard we all agree to and
accept without question. We can be certain it is the advertised grain and not
sawdust because we have an FDA inspection system that oversees both food and
medicine so that we can consume these with almost perfect confidence.
When you buy a prescription, that drug has survived a gauntlet
of regulatory hurdles, so that your doctor can help you make an informed
decision as to the safety and effectiveness of that drug for your
condition. Furthermore, you can be
certain that you are getting the amount of the drug that is printed on the label.
Contrast this with the recent experience with the
unregulated herbal supplement industry.
In 2015 the New York attorney general reported that several large retail
chains were selling health supplements that did not contain any of the
supplement (Echinacea, for
example) that was supposed to be in it.[1] [2] Whether
they work or not an individual is getting cheated out of their property if they
are not getting what is labeled on the bottle.
The
regulatory environment we live in is far more ubiquitous than this and even
effects (intrudes) in our life without transactions. The government has
something to say about the air we breath, the water we drink, and the food we
eat and it does all these things to our benefit. For those who say government
doesn’t do anything for me try breathing the unregulated air of Beijing, or
drink the unregulated water of a Mumbai slum, or eat the unregulated food from
a Mogadishu street vendor.
In
summary up to this point, as labor divides we overwhelmingly make buy choices
and surrender to the salutary servitude of the fruits of others’ labor. As we
depend more on the goods and services of others, we surrender to the salutary
servitude of a massive regulatory system that ensures without us thinking about
it (freedom from) that the most basic interactions we have with the world and
with the market are fair. I would say that this is a most fundamental
characteristic of civilization.
All
that said, I can understand where the ultra-libertarian feels that the
statement, “The government has something to say about the air we breath.” is
positively Orwellian. And as much as the ultra-liberal may cheer the regulatory
framework that engulfs us it may be a fundamental part of the discontent we all
feel toward the civilization we have been born into. In a future post, I may
look more closely at this particular source of discontent. For now I only hope
to give a way of looking at the world we live in that may be helpful for you to
see where you stand in it.
Free market fundamentalism is a fine idea. So is Socialism. But in the real world, in real governments in actual history, neither of these CONCEPTS can be found in their PURE forms. And therefore, arguing about these ideas in the abstract seems like a terrific waste of time to me.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, we know this much: hybrid systems work. We can observe a wide spectrum of successful hybrid governments in the real world -- so called "natural experiments." And finally, we also know that benefits accrue to high-functioning, collaborative societies all along that spectrum. In other words, it's TEAMWORK and EXECUTION that matters, not philosophy.
If I'm right about this, we're screwed of course.
PS. Mark Twain once quipped that the 'self-made man' made about as much sense as a self-laid egg.
"salutary servitude". Love the idea and phrase. Is it yours?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the above excellent comment, I agree if teamwork and execution are the key we seem screwed. Yet civilization has gotten this far despite the workings of an imperfect homo sapiens. So I have hope.
Thanks for writing this excellent blog.