The market has never tried to change human nature, and guardians of the market have never considered using the market to change human nature. Instead, precisely because human nature cannot be changed, the market economy exists, which is also the reason the market economy is necessary: It causes human actions to better conform to the requirements of virtue.
– Zhang Weiying (The Logic of the Market)
Prof. Don Boudreaux (in agreement):
In markets each person has the ability to say “no” and to have that response respected. Each person, therefore, in markets gains by peacefully making offers to which other people say “yes.”
Matters differ greatly when a person acts through the state. Any individual with the ability to commandeer state power – to have that power used on his or her behalf – can override other people’s right to say “no.” Those with access to state power have no incentive to improve the welfare of all with whom they deal. Such people might – indeed, typically must – form coalitions with some others in order to accumulate enough influence to grab and use state power. But state power is valuable to those who possess it precisely because those who possess it can gain without having to improve the welfare of all people with whom they engage.
With the Presidential race on the Democrat side swaying to the Left to Socialism, their only solution IS the use of State Power. There is no voluntary action within their vocabulary. It is “this is what I will have Government do for you – if you are one of their protected classes on their identity group political totem pole. For the rest of us, it is what Government will do TO us in order to make the “For” happen. It would also be a stupid bet to bet against how we already know how they will use the Force of Government to force us to change our behaviors to THEIR standard and not in protecting our liberties. Energy sources, self-defense, food, healthcare, speech, travel, housing – you name it, these totalitarians have no problem in forcing us to live the way they want us to and proudly proclaim that they have brought us to The Promised Land, Heaven on Earth.
They don’t understand or accept that we wish to choose for ourselves. They have made it clear that they ARE our betters and that we will accept it – it for our own good. Time after time in discussing this with the very few Leftists that will engage in debate (they now believe that even TALKING issues gives credence to other opinions and people, so they won’t), they just can’t understand that the vast majority of us can take care of ourselves and our families quite well indeed without their help.
You see, it’s all about “Community” with them. That’s perfectly fine and I enjoy my community but under MY choices of interaction and intensity. They, on the other hand, have put Communitarianism on steroids and expect the rest of us to say “thank you”.
As if every other single attempt at doing that has been such a rousing success…
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)