The Great God Market Place

Christian Savior

Libertarian Savior

The problem with Libertarians is that they have the exact same circular logic as Born Again Christians. Ask a Christianoid for a solution for unemployment and he will reply that the unemployed should pray to Jesus for a job. When asked how he knows that praying to Jesus will help, he will reply that it says so in the Bible. Ask him how he knows that what the Bible says is true, he will reply that everyone knows it is the literal word of God. Finally if you ask him how he knows that the Bible is the literal word of God, he look at you like you were nuts and say that it says so in the Bible. See? Circular logic.

Ask a Libertarian what his solution to unemployment is, and he will tell you that deregulating the market place will solve all our problems. When asked how he knows that deregulating the market place would work, he will reply that it is in the Constitution. When asked how they know it is in the Constitution, he will respond that it’s what the Founding Fathers said in the Federalist Papers. When you point out that the Federalist Papers are not the Constitution, he look at you like you were nuts and say that it’s what the Founding Fathers wanted. To put it another way, Jefferson said it, I believe it, that settles it. See what I mean? Circular logic.

Examining the Constitution, we see that the Federal Government most certainly has the right to impose regulations upon industries that cannot regulate themselves according to the public good. Stocks and bonds are regulated due to the stock market crash of 1929. As soon as the regulations were relaxed junk stocks went right back on the market and stock brokers were selling them on the margin, and that lead to the stock market crash of 2000. So why do Libertarians believe that deregulating the market place would not lead to further abuses?

When you get out a copy of the Constitution and show a Libertarian that economic regulations are most certainly constitutional, He gets all indignant and self righteous and points out that the Founding Fathers were against it. It says so in the Federalist Papers. So Libertarians are not really Constituionalists. They are followers of the Federalist Papers, and they follow it with the same unthinking devotion as the Christianoids follow the Bible. The Federalist Papers were propaganda used to convince the public to accept the Constitution. The Constitution itself was subjected to many revisions and compromises before it was finally ratified. The finished product has remained in the basic spirit of the Federalist Papers, but practicality caused many fundamental differences.

Besides not really believing in the Constitution, the Libertarians also believe in Founding Fathers who are as mythical as the Biblical Jesus. Take their hero Tom Jefferson for instance. The Libertarians are the first to point out that their hero considered taxation as tyranny. This makes the historical Jefferson the nation’s first tyrant. As Secretary of the Treasury, Thomas Jefferson made paying off America’s war debt to the French as his first priority. Unlike what was said in the Federalist Papers, Jefferson was a keen enough politician to know that his fledgling nation would never fly without foreign investment. So to establish credibility amongst European investors, Jefferson pushed through many unpopular taxes to pay off the debt early. Point that out to a Libertarian and they get as angry as a Christianoid at the denial of Christ. Then they pull out a copy of the Federalist Papers to show you the holy word.

It seems to me that Jefferson plays the same role in the lives of Libertarians that Jesus plays in the lives of Christianoids. Jefferson is the way and the truth and none come unto the Market Place but through him. So if Jefferson is Jesus, than who is God? Why the Market Place of course. The Market Place is a mysterious invisible force that moves through the earth keeping the economy in balance through “economic readjustments” I suppose “economic readjustments” are the Libertarian version of miracles. Point out that the current mortgage meltdown is one of Market Place’s “economic readjustments”, and Libertarians rejoice for you have seen the light. Point out that people are losing their homes and living on the street, and they will blame FDR and the New Deal for all the unnecessary laws. If there wasn’t any laws against selling fraudulent mortgages, there wouldn’t be any crime, right?

So what happens when you point out that if the laws and regulations were respected, there would not have been a mortgage meltdown, and people could still afford a roof over their heads? The Libertarians get angry and accuse you of supporting Big Government. You see if the Market Place is God then Big Government is Satan. So demanding just and fair laws to protect our economy, a compassionate social safety net, and a national health plan makes me a Satanist. So all I can say to that is, Hail Satan.

So why do Libertarians confuse the Market Place with the almighty? The answers can be found in the works of Adam Smith and the other early Capitalist economists. They were writing during the earliest years of the Industrial Revolution. Their works can be seen as a transition from theological thought to scientific thought. Like Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin, the early capitalists were Mechanists who still saw natural law as something created. That is why there are so many points in common between Adam Smith and John Calvin. So it is obvious that there would be plenty of confusion between Market Place and The Father, The Son, and the Holy Ghost.

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