free market

December 9, 2008 - 10:54am
COLUMNIST

Asinine Watch: John Farmer Jr.

Former New Jersey attorney general John Farmer Jr. wrote an op-ed in last Sunday’s  Star Ledger (“A culture that doesn’t think values are worth the effort”) that is obtuse and factually incorrect.   In his essay Mr. Farmer states the “In business it [skepticism] it has led us to abandon the idea that anything has intrinsic value in favor of a dogmatic belief in the free market.”  Huh?  There is no “intrinsic value” in society.  As the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises observed:  Value is not intrinsic, it is not in things. It is within us; it is the way in which man reacts to the conditions of his environment. Neither is value in words and doctrines, it is reflected in human conduct. It is not what a man or groups of men say about value that counts, but how they act. 

Consumers determine the value of a good or service by their actions.  The venerable law of supply and demand sets prices in the marketplace.  In the free market, consumers rule, not business, not labor unions, not politicians, and certainly not lawyers. 

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October 3, 2008 - 8:22am

Defending the American Dream

The sub prime mortgage melt down and its ensuing financial “crisis” has tested the mettle of all of us who believe in and support the free market.  As Thomas Payne put it, “These are the times that try mens' souls.”

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