[ExI] Belief in Market Efficiency

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/2/3 painlord2k at libero.it <painlord2k at libero.it>:

> History could show how free market is a mortal enemy of slavery.
>
> The South seceded because the North didn't allow the slavery to be
> established in the West.
> The presence of states without slavery at the borders of states with slavery
> (and slaves) put economic pressure on the slave holders in these states
> because the slaves (that had a very high value) were able to escape the
> bondages and find shelter over the borders.
>
> Nearer the border, easier was for the slaves to escape the bondages.
> At the end, there more loss than gain in owing slaves. So people gave up to
> have and use slaves. And become hostile to the slave holders as they were
> competitors with cheaper workforce than them.
>
> So, the slave holder were forced to recede as the territories where slavery
> were economically sustainable. Then the balance of power in a state changed
> and abolitionists become able to pass law banning slavery and a new state
> banning slavery border states where slavery exist.

But the states that abolished slavery did something very un-free
market by making a law prohibiting a certain type of previously
accepted property, and un-neighbourly by letting fugitives escape
justice because what they had done in another jurisdiction was not
illegal in their jurisdiction. It is like declaring, for example, that
it is illegal and morally wrong for a state to allow its citizens to
starve, and then giving asylum to any impoverished thieves from states
that failed to look after them. And this is not an unfair comparison:
in the ancient world, people used to sell themselves into slavery in
order to overcome poverty.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou