“Trade is a legitimate thing. The Bible calls for fair weights and fair measures, not for collectivizing a society.”
I’m not saying the market doesn’t conform to any moral system, nor that its results aren’t in line with traditional Western morals. I’m saying the market itself doesn’t produce morals. It is simply a social mechanism. You get the idea that collectivization is bad, apparently, from a 2,000 year-old religion, which itself grew from an even older moral tradition. You didn’t arrive at your conclusion because you love freely fluctuating prices and several property.
dog gone. you were doing so good in that first post, and then you crashed.
You are correct: "we get our morality elsewhere," sort of. "Mechanisms" aren't amoral. A hammer is a mechanism. Is it "amoral?" It's designed for a constructive purpose. That in itself is a moral purpose. Can it be used immorally? Of course it can. The mechanism has a moral purpose. Its use depends upon the morality of the user.
You don't need a 2000 year old religion to know that -- honest reflection will teach you -- but that religion certainly knows it and can tell you a good deal more about markets and morality.
You speak of this mechanism as if it is a natural law of some kind, or even self existent. So let's say it is (even if doing so is a bit of a concession at this point). All of creation (or nature, if you prefer) has the principal of life built into it -- it's always growing, pushing through, multiplying, creating and recreating itself (after its kind). There's a hint of morality in that "natural law."