What Is A Government (Not A State)?

Government is a voluntarily chosen means - a type of social cooperation - for achieving the ends desired within a particular society. It may be that the type of social cooperation chosen does not resemble what contemporary thought considers a 'government' but it is voluntarily and non-coercively chosen, so for that time and place it is perfectly fine and subject to change if the results do not turn out to be desirable.

Someone may say that this is confusing spontaneous order with government. Spontaneous order may include all of the voluntary choices made in society, including those means that serve as a government for certain agreed upon tasks, but spontaneous order could just as easily not have a governmental element.

Government is only one of many means to attain the ends chosen. Therefore it can be one of the means voluntarily chosen. It would be folly for a society to choose government as a means to attain one or several of its ends without very specific constraints founded firmly on the preservation of property rights. Of course there are always 'private' means as alternative means and the more people understand the beauty of these private means the higher they will be regarded, but ultimately voluntary choices need to be made for the ethics of society to advance properly. Freedom and liberty allow for the optimal development of ethics. This is what leads to the greatest advancement of civilization.


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Another Reason Ethics And Economics Are Inseparable!

What is overlooked is the role of the flow of knowledge in the development of ethics.

An unhampered market economy is the optimal means for maximizing the flow of knowledge. When there is a corruption by ego-driven interventionism then the flow of knowledge is not only lessened but it is also distorted which has consequences in the ethical development of civilization.

Similar to the criticism of capitalism - when people look at the fascism of crony capitalism and say how undesirable capitalism is - it is important to compare and contrast using an authentic representation. So when we see how people choose what appears to be perverse goods and services because they are made available in the market we have to remember that the ethical development in that culture has been lessened and distorted because of the ego-driven interventionism.

In other words, all things change (ethics included) - including the goods and services that are produced because the people's desires are different - when the flow of knowledge is optimal as is the case in an unhampered market economy.

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Does The Market Economy Produce' Evil' Goods?

The unhampered market economy is the best possible reflection of the cultural choices of society and so what goods and services it provides is an expression of the ethics that exist at that time and place. Cultures can be understood to be in different conditions of maturity but the best way for civilization to advance is for knowledge to flow feely and the best means for the optimal flow of knowledge is an unhampered market economy, in other words, an economy that is not corrupted by ego-driven interventionism.

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If you know of anyone interested in ethics and economics,
or liberty and justice, please send them this link:
http://bruce-koerber.squarespace.com