The Wealth Of Nations 22
Book 3 Chapter 4
How The Commerce Of Towns Contributed To The Improvement Of The Country
Free Markets Are The Most Humane
Hand in hand, stride for stride, the whole of the economic model and the close relationship between urban and suburban living continue to improve the lives of the people when, THE MARKET IS PERMITTED TO OPERATE FREELY.
As such, the only truly humane market is a free one. This is grounded in the reality that this life is about learning and becoming self-reliant. Systems that take away someone’s right, opportunity and freedom to learn from the natural consequences of action is thievery.
For instance, if a child is never permitted to fall down while trying to walk, the learning process of walking is greatly extended. Or, if a child is not faced with the struggle of learning mathematics, the energy required to truly understand remains dormant.
Our Challenge
The challenge facing us today is allowing the market to freely operate wherein it is self-regulating. People are much less likely to pollute, steal and cheat the next person or neighbor when the market is permitted to reign. Or more simply, the responsibility for actions and the consequences for those actions are based on true principles of liberty. The Golden Rule can be followed successfully within communities without regulating everything and turning control of governance for every single decision in life over to bureaucrats.
The Key Three
Smith highlights a healthy functional relationship between urban and suburban life. He breaks it down into three basic points.
“The increase of riches of commercial and manufacturing towns contributed to the improvement and cultivation of the countries to which they belonged, in three different ways:
First, by affording a great and ready market for the rude produce of the country, they gave encouragement to its cultivation and further improvement…
Secondly, the wealth acquired by the inhabitants of cities was frequently employed in purchasing such lands as were to be sold, of which a great part would frequently be uncultivated…
Thirdly, and lastly, commerce and manufactures gradually introduced order and good government, and with them the liberty and security of individuals, among the inhabitants of the country, who had before lived almost in a continual state of war with their neighbours, and of servile dependency upon their superiors…”
The Earth’s Increase
Many are simply confused by the Earth and its power to continually yield an increase as it is cultivated and cared for. Our planet is rightly considered Mother Earth through a life sustaining and life giving yield. There is enough in the Earth for the whole of God’s plan for it.
Self-Governance of Man
To fully succeed in free markets and understanding that Man is very capable of self-governance. Once freedom is granted, a period adjustment occurs until the market reigns, which is really Natural Law.
Struggle for power
Standing in the way of a true market condition is the struggle for power and control over the neighbor. For simple and understandable and wrong reasons, some people have a fundamental need to control others.
Faith In Truth
The cure for broken markets is faith in Natural Law and the writer of that Law.
I encourage you to read this text and learn about the true Wealth Of Nations.
God Bless You and God Bless America!
