Both Eyes Open

Are there dumb laws of nature? This reasonable question occurred to me some years back after I heard an eminent economist explain why automakers ought not to be compelled to install seat belts. Yes, it is safer to wear them, he granted, but our natural liberty is violated if human laws force us to be safe. There is a better way, he suggested: the market. If there are enough lethal accidents, sales will fall. Companies will recognize their self-interest and put in seat belts. Sales will rise. Business will prosper and everyone will be free and safe (save those who went through windshields). He forgot to conclude that nothing human is natural to us.

Toy manufacturers in China and Communist Party bosses there may appreciate this way of thinking, but my social democratic ears hear “free” market faith-healing. Really-existing capitalism vanishes into its own “logic.” Pose a hard question and it will be dismissed by faith-based economists with the wave of a very visible hand. But does a rising tide truly lift all boats, as the ideological cliché has it? Or does it raise a disproportionate percentage of luxury liners? as a wit once queried. Is “tide” even the right word? After all, ocean currents are not designed by men and women, while markets are human activities. Isn’t conflating markets and tides a little like acclaiming real estate moguls as “developers”? And isn’t it odd that some thoughtless proponents of globalization sound like economic determ...