Monday, April 27, 2009

It Is Not A Question Of Trust

What would you think if someone asked you, "do you trust the economy?"

Here's a question I think is similar:

"Do you trust dough to rise?"

I expect dough to rise, but I don't trust dough to rise. If I put the appropriate ratios of yeast, flour, and water together, leavening happens. If the dough does not rise, then I know something has interfered with a natural process. Similarly, should I suddenly notice various people who now collaborate in order to sell me groceries cease to sell me groceries, I shall know to look for interference.

If there is no interference, then the believers in the God of the Living would trump the agents of Death very quickly. The lovers of death die, are more sickly, and have fewer children. Those that love the Lord tend towards longer life, more children, etc... The purveyors of the culture of Death must, therefore, use trickery and coercion in order to steal our property, our children, even our own persons for their nefarious ends.

Those that would interfere prefer you to think their interference is warranted. Rahm Emmanuel, Bernanke, Geithner, Chairman Mao- take your pick. They do not trust you to do what they want you to do, and, as a consequence, they don't trust our aggregate decision making processes. What are they doing? Well, if they were bakers they would be repeatedly killing the yeast, redistributing flour, overfeeding here, starving there, putting too much water, then drying the whole thing out. They would let the dough rise for too long and then freak out as it sagged. Perhaps, worst of all, they would forget what the dough was for, and we'd never get a loaf of bread out of them.

Ultimately, the economy is people working out how they shall live. It's moment by moment, transaction by transaction. When you think of economy, it's far better to think of the little individual yeast cells, or all the molecules in the sea. Macro events are driven by micro; not the other way round. The study of economics is founded upon praxeology, the study of human action, within a realm of finite resources.

So, for those actually interested in it, God's will is done through economy, not in contradiction to or against economy. Expect the economy to work, and get really upset with politicians when they interfere so much that it cannot. Trust God. Don't confuse the economy with a sentient being who could be trusted. Individual decision makers may be sentient; the economy is not- it shouldn't even be considered an entity, except loosely, like dough.

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