… is from page 250 of Deirdre McCloskey’s 2024 paper “Market Prices are Not Inherently Corrupting,” which is chapter 19 in The War on Prices: How Popular Misconceptions About Inflation, Prices, and Value Create Bad Policy (Ryan A. Bourne, ed., 2024):
In short, there’s nothing inherently corrupting about market forces determining prices. In fact, paying your way is dignifying.
DBx: One of the many splendid features of market prices is that these, better than any other device, incite each economic decision-maker – consumer and producer – to take subtle account of the preferences of fellow human beings as well as of existing economic constraints and opportunities. Every government intervention that overrides market prices, or even that artificially restricts the peaceful economic choices of ordinary people, is an attempt to shield some individuals from having to take account of the preferences of their fellow human beings and of economic constraints and opportunities.
When, for example, the pundits at American Compass propose to restrict trade in order to create more ‘dignity’ for workers, not only do these pundits ignore the jobs that protectionist policies destroy, they also do not realize that the alleged ‘dignity’ gotten by protected workers comes at the forced expense of fellow citizens. For a protected worker to feel ‘dignified’ holding his or her protected job makes no more sense than for a successful pickpocket feeling dignified for holding his or her job.
