Either the market or coercion exists. It’s impossible to have both. There can’t even be a smooth transition. They advocate the use of coercion to correct the so-called failures in the market. The market doesn’t fail, ever. Humans aren’t perfect so they can make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean the market failed. Using a little bit of coercion creates an unstable environment, and it can never stay like that.
Many different terms are made up to disguise inconsistencies or coercion, maybe both. They allege they favor freedom. These terms are empty. You either favor private property or you don’t. They’ll start defining terms in a special way. A way that fits these made-up terms. Words have meaning. They can’t use words to mean whatever they want to mean. All they are doing is parading around pompous names to attempt to gain supporters.
The users of these names are sadists. Some might honestly favor freedom, but have been fooled. Even those that think they are the good guys are aware of the coercion they’re advocating. If they’re advocating coercion, they’re advocating evil. They’ll use mental gymnastics to pretend that’s not true. This is not different from the proverb: you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. They’re saying coercion is acceptable if it fits my world view.
They’ll say—might even believe—what they’re doing is just. It doesn’t matter whether this is believed or not. Good intentions don’t matter. This is pure evil. There’s no way around that. This will be disguised with new terms, arbitrary definitions, subjective logic, and more. The individual either acts for himself or is directed by another. Everyone is free or some have power over others.
Simplified, it’s either the market or coercion. Both can’t exist. They’ll want you to think coercion is fine if inflicted by the right people in the right way. This is why they want you to accept the state as God. Then, the God-state can inflict any amount of coercion. They have achieved divine status and nothing they do is evil. It doesn’t matter how many eggs they break, it’s all justified to them. Eggs are a horrible analogy for people.
Reference
Ludwig von Mises; Human Action
One thought on “The Market or Coercion”
Comments are closed.