05/10/11 Buenos Aires, Argentina – It is at times useful to imagine how a truly laissez-faire society, one entirely emancipated from the shackles of state coercion, might exist and operate. Morris and Linda Tannehill examine this very idea in, The Market for Liberty: Is Government Really Necessary?
Market for Liberty imagines a totally free society; one with no government intrusion whatsoever; one in which the free market is left to respond to the demands of individuals, without recourse to institutionalized coercion – implied or actual. Is such a stateless existence even possible, much less preferable? Or, as so many contend, is it merely an academically contrived utopia?
Morris and Linda Tannehill address all the usual fears and protestations that a truly non-governmental – i.e. anarchist society – conjures up.
Whenever there arises in conversation the mere suggestion of a totally free, laissez-faire market, the possibility that human beings might even be able to survive (much less thrive) without the safety net of State control, apologists for “benevolent government” invariably step atop their soapboxes and ask:
“Yes, but who will provide education for the masses, if not the public schools?” or “Who will care for the sick and weak, if not the public hospitals?”
Indeed, these are questions that deserve thoughtful, honest answers. But these questions assume realities that are not in evidence.
They suppose that “the public” (i.e., the state) actually has money to “provide” these services, rather than, as is actually the case, first having to expropriate (steal) it from private, productive individuals. Furthermore, the fallacy of benign governmental control relies on the idea that governments can provide essential services more reliably and cost-effectively than the private sector.
In other words, the government’s obligation to provide essential services is more reliable and effective than the private sector’s opportunity to provide essential services. Admittedly, this debate does not lend itself to easy, black and white conclusions.
But as the Tannehill’s argue persuasively, the free market provides solutions that governments would never dream of. “The big advantage of any action of the free market,” contend the Tannehills, “is that errors and injustices are self-correcting. Because competition creates a need for excellence on the part of each business, a free-market institution must correct its errors in order to survive. Government, on the other hand, survives not by excellence, but by coercion; so an error or flaw in a governmental institution can (and usually will) perpetuate itself almost indefinitely, with its errors being ‘corrected’ by further errors. Private enterprise must, therefore, always be superior to government in any field.”
[It is worth mentioning here that corporations acting in collusion with the state are NOT private enterprises as the Tannehill’s define them. They are simply entities that have co-opted the government’s “gun-for-hire” to do their dirty work for them. Think Wall Street “bailout” recipients and their army of D.C. lobbyists. Indeed, think any institution at all that seeks unfair protection or promotion from the state.]
The lines on the battlefield between the comfort of State control and the liberty of anarchy are familiar to all. The State is a protector, one side argues. The State is a prison guard, the other side argues.
- How, the statist is heard to question, might common disputes find resolution without the currently preferred monopoly of the state’s courts?
- What about private monopolies that would ruthlessly jack up prices and bleed us working class proletariats to death?
- By what means might a laissez-faire society offer protection from foreign aggressors?
- How might the personal liberties underpinning the whole system be protected if it were not for the tireless work of the state’s police and its myriad other law enforcement agencies?
- Indeed, the statist continues, how would “the law” itself even come into being, and in what shape would it find application, in the absence of the all-knowing, all-powerful state?
The Tannehills address these anxieties thoroughly and logically. “Freedom is not only as moral as governmental slavery is immoral,” they write, “it is as practical as government is impractical.”
Discussions criticizing the state’s myriad shortcomings and follies are many. The Tannehill’s Market for Liberty takes the extra step in providing viable, concrete solutions to state-sponsored dilemmas. The Free Market, they argue, can correct the State’s tendency toward costly excesses, and can do so peacefully and voluntarily, simply by following price signals from the market itself.
Market for Liberty is, for all intents and purposes, a very real, practical solution set to those most commonly presented excuses for acquiescing to governmental authority. The government is not merely a “necessary evil,” the Tannehills argue. “It is necessarily evil.”
Of course, Market for Liberty does not project a utopia in which acts of violence simply disappear and where every individual immediately sets off on a long road to perfection. Rather, the authors illustrate how individuals acting in their own self-interest, coming together to engage in mutually-beneficial exchanges, are thus incentivized to act with honesty and integrity.
“The history of governments always has been, and always will be, written in blood, fire and tears,” the Tannehills assert. In Market for Liberty, they show how freedom is not only an alternative to the State, but a far superior one worth, at the very least, our immediate and undivided attention.
Regards,
Joel Bowman,
for The Daily Reckoning
Joel Bowman
Joel Bowman is managing editor of The Daily Reckoning. After completing his degree in media communications and journalism in his home country of Australia, Joel moved to Baltimore to join the Agora Financial team. His keen interest in travel and macroeconomics first took him to New York where he regularly reported from Wall Street, and he now writes from and lives all over the world.
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“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
it is the measure of how successful this government has been that zero government is thought to be possible at all, let alone preferable. this government is out of control right now, true, but what would arise should it disappear would shock you all. the answer is to fix what we have, restoring government to its proper place and limits. no government means chaos, and libertarian laisse-faires are the least suited people on earth to handle chaos.
You will never be free of government intrusion until the power to create money is taken away from the government and returned to private enterprise. Your political freedoms are but empty promises, and anyone who thinks those promises can be realized without also possessing the money power is a dupe.
The Bauers (Rothchilds) could care less who made the laws of the land provided they controlled the issue of money.
The power to issue money controls the sphere of its influence. Money is a law unto itself. Its best you soon learn it.
Even if your most fanciful dreams came true and there were no more government, you would still have to have money in order to survive. We survive by trading with our fellow human beings and money is that mechanism which facilitates that exchange.
Its the MONEY, stupid.
‘Quite right it’s the MONEY stupid’, but the basis of the problem is ‘who controls the MONEY stupid’?
In general the members of a govt; are advised by their beauracrats, and predominately we have lawyers in govt; advised by economists (beauracrats) has there ever been two breeds of professionals that are more opiniated and certain they are right, put in context what a smelly mix they are?
Next in order of control we have Bankers and the leaders of huge cooperation’s hell even smellier. It’s almost funny when we see banks advertising their classes for young business people would be entrepreneurs, it would be nice to go along to one of their classes even if just for a laugh? How well I remember as a young man the bone headed bank manager who wouldn’t have had a clue about what one was doing, sharing his vast knowledge with us and when one had the ignorance to correct the genius one wasn’t welcome in the future, but referred to an equally bone headed accountant.
It has been with awe that one reaches the age of suspected senility, and is able to well understand the stupidity of what my generation created, nitwits and fleabags the bloody lot. One fleabag that springs to mind is the one that came from the USA to run Telstra, what sort of a bunch of nuts (Board) chose him but paid him a real dip wit, bloody millions. I suppose he told them how smart he was and they believed the Yankee pizz azz.
Now we are on a precipice instead of being on the sheep’s we are on the Chinese and Japanese backs, because they are going to keep us wealthy buying our iron ore and coal etc; crikey we is assured of a wonderful life no worries? The greatest pile of crap I have ever heard in my long life. Careful or our genius govt; will give it all away either to the boat people or Asian business and then where will my grandkids be, talking Chinese struth they don’t even speak proper English?
I say our system isn’t worth a buck it’s broken, it was great and that’s been proved by the success of our Western dominance up until now. We would be the last to complain about the past, my companies played the odds and did real well, until the last blow up, but no complains we went all up once too often.
The truth is we need a different system it’s been great until now, and certain things need to be retained such as a lead currency. Govt; needs to be restructured (not world govt) and the banking system revamped. We once had severely poor distribution of the world wealth among nations, but now it’s expanding to within countries.
It’s funny to look at all of the different graphs that shows so much, but in the end says bugger all except the USA is going down the tubes, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain are basked cases. Take the mining sector out of Australia and we are following in close order with the UK; France, NZ, Italy, France etc; etc. I think these countries still have govt, banks, beauracrats and international companies, don’t they poor silly barsted’s.
But truly it was so great once, Paul Keating had his clocks, Bob Hawke gave up booze and took up being a master lover instead, and we the ordinary people all became two buck instant millionaires. Struth we were all financial geniuses, only one in a thousand could read a balance sheet but we all had houses and suddenly we were being told what smart people we were. Guess who by, the real estate spruikers, lawyers, bankers etc; we had six properties so guess how smart we were, or thought we were.
Yes it would be difficult to change the system there is no denying that but something must be done, because if we aren’t careful it will be the West are the poor relations and it won’t be nice. I won’t be around but my grandkids will and that’s a worry.
We don’t have any more ‘govt by the people for the people’ we have govt for the few who can afford it and for the rest it’s a grand illusion. Members of parliament get paid peanuts and we get monkeys, but at least we need properly educated monkeys. Since business is the basis of our economy then we need people trained in business for at least five years hands on, not just lawyers and economists
Govt as structured at present needs to be changed and so does the banking system, put very simply without any elaboration at this point banking and govt
needs to be merged and the system of remuneration restructured. International business needs to be better controlled and the franchisee system upgraded, to allow greater yields to the host countries. We are not advocating no govt; but we are advocating drastic changes, to banking, govt; and major cooperate controls.
Small business has to be given the right priorities, and in fact basic changes need to be implemented to assist start ups through the early hurdles, but not by the vested interests of bankers.
It is an amusing exercise to follow the media and realize there are very few commentators who actually know what they are talking about, for most of them it’s all in the book or they plagiarize off one another.
Yes we are speaking about all of the iconic institutions of our Western Democracy, but better now than in the future, because if we wait too long we will all be like Greece and Ireland, screwed and the next step is anarchy.
Have a great day All.
Without agreed upon, participatory government, strong man military regimes would form and conquer, as they have always done.