It's quite heady reading the international press these days. The proclamations of the demise of free market capitalism are proliferating like kudzu. The formerly sober Nikolas Sarkozy has been one of the most vocal in pronouncing a New World Order (based on the French model, one presumes), while talk of a New New Deal is all the rage on this side of the Atlantic. This past weekend's G20 meeting in Washington DC was a lovefest of cooperation and self-congratulation, even if George Bush wasn't quite bussed on the cheek.
But perhaps we should all take a deep breath.
Exactly what do these folks from around the world think brought them together? Was it good fellowship and neighborly concern? No. It was an interdependent network of international capital and product markets. We inhabitants of earth have just rediscovered that our fates are inextricably intertwined! But it's the global capital and trade markets that have accomplished this wondrous feat.
It's market specialization and free exchange that make the candlestick maker dependent on the watchmaker dependent on the shoemaker dependent on the banker dependent on the lawyer dependent on the farmer dependent on the grocer and so on in an endless web of interdependency. Interconnected capital markets combine one woman's savings with another man's labor and both become better off - without ever even sharing a hug. Such interdependence makes cooperation more rewarding and conflict more punishing.
Oddly enough, that great altruistic theory of state socialism accomplishes the exact opposite. In socialist societies people become isolated and suspicious, business relationships become arbitrary, honesty and transparency become clouded. People and nations cease trading to become self-sufficient. And everyone becomes poorer in a dangerous downward spiral.
So, tell me now: Are we truly going to abandon free markets and embrace statism? Are we going to be governed by who we know and what favors we owe? Will we abandon accountability and responsibility to survive on the whims of politicians? Will we pretend to work, while they pretend to pay us?
Come now, ...not bloody likely.
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