Tuesday, November 24, 2015

What to do about losers?

Hint: Liberty is the answer.

This society is highly competitive. But it is also supposed to be free. I envisage a world where market variety is boundless and everyone can find a niche where they could win or do well overall. This is not done through social planning, but through liberty and innovation. Winning here means a content and ecstatic feeling a part of society through one’s labor.

I’ve been thinking to myself about how there could be room for those who seem to lose more often than others. There might be areas in the market of ideas and goods in which anyone looking for a place to win can do so. This may seem Utopian at first, but unpacking these ideas a bit may clarify and show it as a result an inevitable of the free market system and ideals of liberty we already have.

In market capitalism, there is an ever growing need for variety in ideas or products. Those who are creative or have the drive to find a space in the market to carve out for themselves will find opportunities to do so. Some are concerned that increasing technological capabilities may make many of the jobs we have today obsolete. What they fail to see is that when one door closes many others open. For instance, when the car came about it contributed to the fall of the horse and buggy market. However, this gave rise to an even more varied and lucrative market- automobiles!  

I feel this is true especially with the internet. For sure, some jobs have become extinct because of the net. Yet a smorgasbord of employment opportunities and markets themselves have emerged from the web.  We can be sure that the market is only going to grow. Sure some sectors may die off, but others will emerge in its place. Those with initiative may look for places to prop themselves into a market niche. Doing so would be catalyzed by thinking about common or pressing problems people face everyday and/or focusing on what one enjoys about the world. No one can do this process for anyone else. It is our own responsibility to take this initiative. This is the foundation of liberty: self-responsibility.

A free market, with ever growing opportunities, will provide the insurance that anyone eager to search may find a place to win. The answer to the problem of being a loser is taking responsibility for and exercising one’s liberty and finding a new or different way to win in the world.

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