When people talk of a “decent society”, they mean a society where duty has been collectivised, virtue nationalised

Nothing is more moral than the market

By Daniel Hannan


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• Nothing is more moral than the market
• Under every alternative economic system there is an element of compulsion.
• The market is not an anthropomorphic entity that exists separately from the actors within it

That’s all well and good, my Leftie friends often tell me, but what about morality? Let’s accept, they say, that markets are efficient, that they raise living standards, that they encourage people to invent and exchange things. Let’s even allow, for the sake of argument, that they alleviate poverty. Surely – this line is always delivered with a hint of smugness – surely there is more to life than economics. What about friends and family and acts of kindness? What about visiting the sick or caring for the environment? What about being a good parent, husband or friend?

Well, at the risk of stating the obvious, no one is against any of those things. Trust me on this, socialist readers. I know some of you see conservatism as a kind of mental deficiency, an inability to appreciate the important things in life. But I spend much of my time hanging around with Right-wingers and they’re as keen as the next chap on behaving decently. If anything, they’re less likely than most people to elevate motive over behaviour: you’ll rarely meet a free-marketeer who thinks that you prove your humanity by demanding higher taxes rather than, say, working for a charity.

A lot of people misunderstand what the market is. They think of it as an anthropomorphic entity that exists separately from the actors within it. How often do we hear talk about “letting the market rip”, or “the morality of the market”, as though it were some numinous force outside society? In fact, the market is a set of rules: a matrix within which people can behave generously or selfishly, honestly or shabbily.

In several critical regards, though, capitalism is superior to rival models. Its transactions, because non-coercive, are intrinsically moral. Think of the last time you bought something – the last time, say, that you took a taxi. The chances are that the driver took you promptly and efficiently to the place you wanted, and that you paid him what he thought you would. Each of you, in other words, precisely satisfied the other’s expectations. Can the same always be said of your relations with your friends, or even your spouse?

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