Free Markets & Human Liberty

by Joshua Jongema

A free market does not require a government, regulations or licensure, and benefits everyone. In order to benefit fewer people, lobbyists work to change laws which allow them to make money more freely than others. In that sense, the quote from the novel Animal Farm rings as true today as in any time in America’s history, that, “Some are more equal than others.”

The state will naturally choose the economic practice which profits the state and its more equal constituency. This results in the push for more central planning under an administrative state that can rule over the judiciary and the legislature on a whim, by decree. In that sense the state transformed from monarchy, to a secular democratic nation controlled by monarchs, to a nation free of monarchy, and full circle back to a monarchy. For the executive branch to have the power of kings, and to dictate morality and enforce it upon the populace as if it were a just war, is antithetical to the nature of America’s purpose and struggle throughout history.

Still, the struggle of humankind is between and beyond the concept of the nation-state, which has more or less benefited imperialism and monarchy for its existence over only several hundred years. Ideas are fragile, like the illusions they represent, and would be ignored completely by the daily business of every person on earth were we to tear down the concept of borders and practice commerce freely between each other, without fear of men with guns confiscating our wealth upon each transaction. If the markets were free, people would be free, and the whole earth would rejoice, but for the control put on us, again, historically, by imperialist monarchism.

Even statist Milton Friedman admitted that economic freedom is tied to political freedom, but that is not enough. Human liberty is tied to human action, which is constrained by governmental coercion through regulation and taxation, and the undue threat of violence by armed men.

Libertarians advocate for a market that is free, and yet America is on the fast track away from that ideal. For that reason I advocate secession for the UP.