Michael Munger

The division of labor can be cultivated in a setting with no history of prosperity, and highly productive specialization can be fostered even in people who have no special knowledge or abilities at the outset.

Conventions exist when people all agree on a rule of behavior, even if no one ever said the rule out loud or wrote it down.

It is quite true that a standard bilateral fee-for-service arrangement would fail to provide enough lighthouses — at first. But that failure would have consequences.

Twenty years from now, people will look back at our current practices of exclusive ownership and storage with bewilderment. They will wonder what life was like before platforms made our lives richer, better, and less wasteful.

Few defenders of free markets, not even the oft-maligned Ayn Rand, can be read as defending greed. In fact, if greed or selfishness is understood as exploiting others, then greed is impossible in a system of voluntary exchange.

“Voluntary collective action” should be our motto. This obviously includes markets, to be sure. But there is no reason to cede the vitality, attractiveness, and exuberance of the non-profit independent sector to ownership by the state. Voluntary private organizations belong to everyone.