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… is from page 213 of my good friend and former professor Randy Holcombe’s excellent 2019 book, Liberty in Peril: Democracy and Power in American History [2]:
In markets the situation is just the opposite [from politics]. People cooperate only when they gain from trade on some specific good or service. When a person buys gasoline at a filling station, for example, whether the gas station attendant favors higher or lower taxes is irrelevant to the transaction. Similarly, nobody enters a transaction at a department store contingent on whether the cashier has the same views on abortion as the purchaser. The only relevant issues are whether the purchaser wants to make the particular purchase and whether the seller is willing to sell. Nobody asks, or even cares, about the political views of those with whom they do business. Their interests simply are to complete the transaction as easily as possible. Market exchange, by its very nature, fosters cooperation, even among people who disagree about almost everything.