A second intriguing idea (read the first here) suggested by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse in her lecture on the Economic Way of Thinking is that whereas politicians, socialists, and all sorts of folks that populate our opinion making industries see difference between individuals as a potential source of conflict, economists (at least those who endorse free markets) see difference as an opportunity for production, development, collaboration, and cooperation.
The basic premise of free market economics (with a generous hat tip to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations) is that free trades are always mutually beneficial to all the parties involved. A radical notion arising from a very simple observation—people never freely engage in activities that harm them—it nevertheless suggests that free markets lend themselves to flourishing. St. Paul drew on this intuition in his discussion of the way husbands and wives ought to love one another, and the principle holds wherever it is applied. The very simplicity of this observation masks the dynamic impact it has on not only discussions about the best way to engage in commerce and trade, but has far-reaching impact in more trendy topics like world hunger, child labor, global poverty, resource development in third-world countries, and world peace.
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