We need a little clarity here. At places like LewRockwell.com, you’ll find the underlying theme, often bluntly stated, of preferring the Free Market over the State.
For those of us who serve Christ, the eternal viewpoint is the Market and the State are competitors, not enemies. If you grant all power to the State, you have a nightmare world of oppression. But if you grant all power to the Market, you will still have a nightmare world of oppression. The libertarian worship of human freedom is based on the Enlightenment assumption man is essentially a good moral agent. It won’t matter what they say to the contrary, this is the undeniable philosophical assumption on which they build all their theory.
Man is fallen. Allow the market to rule and you will have oppression by commercial government-in-effect. Everything will be slanted in favor of the merchant’s profit. You can talk all you want about fair and free competition, but without a big stick, you can’t begin to keep any businessman honest. If it has to do with any part of human behavior, there must be a restriction imposed by other humans. However fouled up that may be, it’s the facts. It’s the reason why God established the Covenant of Noah. Assuming a Free Market merchant will tend to be fair, simply because it’s in his own best interest, is too silly to chase very long. There has to be something of a risk, or he’ll quickly do only what makes him happy, regardless what it costs others. This remains true of the whole, regardless what may be true of individual specimens.
The Laws of God assume the only proper and just restraint on sin is Himself working through His chosen instrument, the patriarchal extended family setting. For all the evil seen in that by Western Civilization, everything else so far has been worse. The mere notion we can reach an earthly Nirvana if we just keep studying and tweaking the system is one of Satan’s favorite lies. What no one wants to admit is the ultimate trend of the Free Market is simply the State with another name. If all are restrained under the one head authorized by God — the patriarch — neither the State nor the Market will tyrannize the people. There might still be tyranny, but God has already explained how that is limited. It’s just that no one wants to study up on it and find out how it works when His Word is obeyed.
