PrintAugust 26, 2012
Why Free Markets
To exchange for greater benefit is as natural to humans as any innate bodily function. Exchange needn't be taught or explicated. No inculcation need occur. It just happens. A kindergartener exchanges his juice box for another kindergartener's cupcake. Because of inequality of wants -- one values the juice box more than the cupcake; the other values the cupcake more than the juice box -- voilà: value is created.
No one needed to "regulate" or instigate the exchange between the kindergarteners; each arrived at his own value for the items up for exchange, determined his utility for each item, determined the rate of exchange. Most important, each determined the course of action that would improve his situation.
Markets arise in kindergarten lunchrooms, corporate boardrooms, grocery stores -- anywhere people congregate. For markets aren't specific places; they are processes that people engage to elevate their welfare.
Welfare is...(Read Full Article)
