A longstanding virtue hailed by leaders in both the private and public sectors is the power of the free market to adjudicate fair outcomes, especially but not exclusively for economic results.
It is invoked by those in regulatory positions who are charged with protecting the interests of consumers, shareholders or even employees subject to the power of large organizations. The new NCUA chair has referred to the free market as a mechanism for the evolution of the credit union system.
Credit unions’ cooperative design and purpose were intended to be an antidote to the to excesses of capitalism. In governance and values, credit unions were to be an alternative to the ambitions of organizations wanting to tap into the opportunities of market driven outcomes. The crucial skill is to compete but not become the opposition.
ThePolitical Whitewashing of Free Markets
There is no such thing as a “free market.” Different individuals and firms bring variable skills, resources and historical advantages when specific events unfold. In numerous instances individuals and even entire communities can be at the mercy of organizations led by persons of differing motives and outlooks. Not to mention contradictory interpretations of the “common good.”
Free market rhetoric often reflects an incumbent’s relative economic power, For those whose role is regulatory oversight, the phrase market failure is used to divert attention from their public accountability.
The free market advocates can grow to influence both local and larger markets where the legal process and oversight of market participants becomes ineffective. The result is law less ness — the absence of not just transparency, due process and fair play, but no interest protecting the common good. Consider the explosion of data center construction in communities frequently authorized in private deal making. And then the public backlash when exposed. (link)
An Historian’s View of the Consequences
Historian Timothy Snyder has studied the power of myths in which superheroes overcome evil doers with revenge killings. In his listing of social mythology below he recounts the impulse for retribution and revenge when all social norms are gone. Or, in my interpretation, when the free market is just another justification for private advantage or control.
This superhero solution is a question that troubled the Greek tragedians, the authors of Icelandic sagas, and the founders of the French and English contractarian traditions: how does one seek justice when there is no law? . . . The Greek and the Scandinavian storytellers, like many others, were aware that revenge killings, no matter how apparently justified, could have consequences that spiraled out of control, over communities and over generations. They were also aware that the alternative was law, and that law is not easy and takes orderly work to build.
The critical question when looking at najor events Is whether law less ness, coated with free market verbal camouflage, is the driving force in the cooperative system today?