Thursday, June 4, 2015

Free Trade or Forced Trade?

Column for week of May 25, 2015

     We all trade.  Mostly we produce things we don't want
and trade them for what we want.  Typically we exchange what
we produce for money.  We then exchange the money for what
we want.  When we spend the money we are really spending
what we traded away to get the money.

     In theory an individual might survive by consuming
only what he produces himself or finds in nature.  The only
tools and equipment the self sufficient individual would have
would be those he produced himself.  If everyone were self
sufficient, no one would have much.  Even the most primitive
of people to some extent trade with each other.

     We trade because we gain by specializing and trading.
Without trade humans couldn't rise beyond being
hunter-gatherers practicing very primitive agriculture.  The
question isn't, Will we trade?  The question is, How will we
trade?

     Individuals could steal from others rather than trade. 
Stealing is really the ultimate forced trade.  The victim
exchanges something for nothing.

     When individuals voluntarily trade, each expects to
benefit from the exchange.  If any party to the trade didn't
expect to benefit, he wouldn't participate.  The trade wouldn't
happen.

     When an individual will not trade unless forced, he
believes the trade is not beneficial to him.  Something is stolen
from him.  Forcing that individual to trade is involuntary
servitude, sometimes called slavery.

     Individuals seek different things in different ways. 
Everyone's ultimate goal is to maximize his  satisfaction.  No
individual is capable of getting inside the head of another and
discovering what will satisfy that individual.  Anyone forced to
trade is a victim forced into involuntary servitude.

     Still many people have bought the idea that businesses
should be forced to serve anyone who walks in the door.  Keep
in mind that businesses are just people producing and offering
to trade their products to others.  A business may be one
person or thousands.  Any service provided by the business is
provided by one or more individuals.

     Some may argue that the individuals can avoid the
involuntary servitude by not going into business.  The only
way to avoid the involuntary servitude is to refrain from
offering to trade with others.   In other words, the only escape
from involuntary servitude is into the world of self sufficiency
and the poverty that is inevitable in that world.

     Individuals who work in businesses earn their livelihood
by serving and pleasing customers.  Businesses that turn away
many paying customers don't thrive.  They may not even
survive.  If businesses are so eager to turn away customers,
Why did government and organizations such as the Ku Klux
Klan deem it necessary to threaten business people with
imprisonment and even death to stop the businesses from
serving black customers?

     A key business strategy is to seek to serve customers
that are unserved or under served.  Someone will be seeking to
serve rejected customers.   There is no compelling reason why
everyone has to be able to demand service from every business. 
Customers aren't forced to patronize most businesses.  Why
should individuals in businesses be forced to involuntarily serve
customers?

     The latest epidemic of involuntary servitude involves
providing services for "gay weddings."  Part of the tragedy here
is that the wannabe customers aren't even wannabe customers. 
They aren't really seeking to be served.   They seek to find
businesses who will refuse service.  Then they have the
business persecuted for the welcome refusal.  I have yet to hear
of even one instance where any same sex couple had to go
without a wedding cake because no one would bake it.

     "Solutions" forced by government commonly do more
harm than good.  The cure is worse than the disease.  In this
case there isn't any disease to cure.  The more we turn from
free trade to forced trade, the sicker our nation becomes.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2015
Albert D. McCallum