Free Trade cannot be Forced
by William D
Originally posted at The First Creation.
Guns do not produce value. Guns cannot force people to produce wealth. Unaware of this fact, the government holds the threat of force against the greatest form of human interaction, the corporation. Few would heed to the government's rules or regulations if it were not for the final card that can be played—holding a gun to the individual's head and demanding compliance. Not many people desire to think of extreme cases, or the true source of power. It takes but a few “whys” to reach the answer.
Why do I pay my taxes? If I don't, I will be audited. Why do I comply with an audit? If I don't, the tax collectors will attempt to seize my estate. Why do I relinquish the estate? If I don't a police officer will put handcuffs on me and escort me to prison. Why do I allow another man to shackle my hands with steel? If I don't, a government agent will draw his gun and aim it at my chest. The power of the government is derived from the sanctioned use of force—the muzzle of a gun.
Wait, don't I pay taxes because I am by brother's keeper, I'm obligated to help the less fortunate? No, I am my own keeper—asking nothing from others and giving nothing (see egoism). How is value produced then—how do individuals interact in the absence of force and obligation? Barter, free trade: money. Free exchange between rational beings. Specialization and trade are very natural. People have been bartering for thousands of years. With one person growing grain and another fashioning garments, trade is a logical consequent. Money then became the medium of exchange, the enabler of free trade. People have used many forms of money through the years: salt, wampum, tobacco. People then converged to gold as an objective standard. Although none of these are inherently the best (it comes down to what people will accept as payment), money today has no intrinsic value. The government is what gives value to money—they say that a piece of paper is worth our conception of one hundred dollars, and they have the guns to enforce that arbitration of value.
Who truly gives value to the paper are the people who make money. The term to “make money” has become a passive description. Here I use it in its full meaning: creating a value that was non-existent before an action was taken. The money, therefore, is not merely the product of effort, but the actual effort itself. The money is proportional to the effort, and can then be traded with others for their effort—products or services that further one's self interest. The most wonderful part of this interaction, the beauty of a capitalist system, is that the act of trade is a non-zero sum game. In game theory, zero sum refers to a situation where one participant's loss is another's gain, the sum value is zero. When people specialize and trade their surplus, more value is created, a positive sum situation. Because of this, it is beneficial to everyone for an individual to produce a great fortune. In each sale the individual made along the way, someone was getting a greater value.
The epitome of the capitalist ideal is the billionaire entrepreneur. The man who knows, the man who does. While others search for meaning or ask, “who can ever know anything,” the entrepreneur finds what they are searching for, and knows that he has. He has the motivation and ability to bring it into existence, and give others' lives meaning. Billionaires (and anyone else) who has created their own wealth and recognize that fact as a virtue, are happy. They fill their day with things that bring them enjoyment—work they love, people they respect, vacations to exotic lands. The direction I just implied is backwards, though. Money does not free someone from pain—the unnecessary. Freedom from the unnecessary brings money and happiness. To ignore every irrelevant duty and focus solely on what will further one's financial position and rational self interest is what brings it into existence.
Every man and woman capable of understanding this should strip their lives of the unnecessary—passive television watching, small talk, gossip, contemplation of others' thoughts, or repairing the damaged wall. When this happens, unimagined wealth will be created using the energy otherwise wasted on ignoble pursuits. People would be empowered to be immersed in a cinematic masterpiece, discuss and debate the works of Aristotle or Ayn Rand, discover unknown laws of physics, and live in an estate built for king—or more accurately, built for a rational man. “[This] world can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, and it’s yours.” -Ayn Rand.
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