Certainly I’m for freedom and liberty, something peculiar to the political entity that is the United States. And while a free market is the most efficient tool for pricing and allocating resources a free market hasn’t got some mystical interest in preserving freedom or liberty or the United States. It can’t, of course, because a market has no mind and it is simply a pricing mechanism without any teleological goal.
For many years the Pentagon had an office whose sole job was to assure that strategic industries survived and were not purchased by potential enemies. In the purely free market world envisioned by some libertarians anyone could buy any assets that they wished; anything else would “socialism”- but in the world as it really exists limits on the sale of some assets are the rationale behavior of a people that intends to survive.
Well said. Is that you, Pat?
There's no "market", only people in the market excising their freedom to buy and sell as they please. And it is the people who comprise the free market who have a great interest in preserving freedom and liberty in the United States. But of course the free market is not a political entity, it is an economic entity and, therefore, needs political protection in order to operate, the very thing our Constitution has uniquely provided.
Pentagon had an office whose sole job was to assure that strategic industries survived
The only legitimate federal government entry into commercial enterprise is to research and build what's needed facilitate the greatest and strongest defense in the world, the main reason for the existence of the federal government to begin with. I'm all for that.
But economic "protectionism" is another thing and is a form of shooting yourself in the foot. Tariffs don't hurt the other guy, it hurts American consumers by raising the prices of goods and lessens the supply because suppliers will go elsewhere if necessary. It doesn't matter that the other guy puts up tariffs - he's just raising his costs of doing business - he's shooting himself in the foot. As long as we don't raise tariffs, American consumers will have the benefit of competitive forces that allow for maximum choices and quality at the lowest prices.
The free market is the natural result of an economy free of government interference. The voluntary free market is freedom at work. As Adam Smith said, it is invisible, just like freedom itself, which is a big reason why so many have a hard time understanding the free market is a free society's alternative to government coercion which is easy to see. Only the wealth-producing results for the free market and free trade are visible, with post-1800's America as a prime example.