A river flows downhill. You can dam it, you can divert it, you can put obstacles in it. But, no matter what you do, the water will find its way, and it will do what flowing water always does. All your interference does is hamper its optimal travel down the hill. Left alone, the river will find the easiest route. Meddled with, it’ll take a less efficient route, and quite possibly cause unintended damage along the way. Accommodated and abetted, however, and it’ll flow even more freely. Pull some stones out of its bed, protect it from falling trees and other obstacles, and its flow improves. The flow of the river supports all those near it. Plants grow, animals drink, herds and packs flourish, predators hunt, culling the weak. The erosion the river causes shapes all that is around it and helps it flow better. Obstacles and inefficiencies are slowly worn away, and those that benefit from it benefit from that erosion. Those who think they know better how the river should work end up only bending it for their own benefit.
So, too, go market forces. They cannot be dodged. They alway win out in the end. They may manifest differently than if they were unhampered or not interfered with, but they cannot be “defeated.” Sure, some will come out ahead if someone mucks with the market, but that comes at cost to others. Protect some from market forces, shield some from creative destruction, and you protect the weak and inefficient. Their continued existence is a drag on all around them, and that continued existence will only be temporary. The market will eventually win out. Protect the market, clear out obstacles and establish a framework of property rights and contract enforcement, and the market will work better, will flow better.
There is irony in the detractors of the free market. Very often, they are the same people who argue for ensuring nature remains pristine, who call for the protection of wild spaces. They seek to meddle in the natural order the market brings about while shielding the natural order of wild spaces from meddling. In the case of the latter, they fear permanent loss of those spaces, but as observing any place developed and then abandoned by humans, nature always makes a comeback. Nature always wins out.
So does the market. Market forces are as inexorable as gravity. They’re not something we choose, or something that government creates or structures. They are rooted in human nature, in the genetic wiring that informs our thoughts and actions. Some individuals may choose to act in a fashion contrary to their instincts, but others won’t. Moreso, those instincts will always be there, always be guiding and pointing human behavior in the aggregate.
Many wish to deny this reality. Many think that, either via education or regulation, market forces can be eliminated or diminished to irrelevance. They cannot, and until those who govern accept this reality, they will only accomplish pointless harm to those they govern.
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