But we needn’t regard inequality as a weak point in our arguments for economic freedom, or as an issue on which we simply cannot win. Existing economic relations are not the product of freedom of exchange or legitimate private property. Libertarians actually hold the high ground on the inequality issue. Liberty and equality in fact complement and reinforce one another, the former naturally resulting in the latter.

Individualist anarchists like Lysander Spooner held that “extremes in both wealth and poverty” resulted from “positive legislation,” substituting arbitrary laws for natural laws and “establish[ing] monopolies and privileges.” In capitalism, Spooner argued, the owners of capital receive special power in the economy — power having nothing to do with simple freedom of production, exchange, and competition. Considered holistically, state intervention redounds to the benefit of the rich and politically connected, economic elites with special access to those who write and implement the rules we are all forced to live by.

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With a narrow sliver of the populace hoarding so much of the country’s wealth, policy wonks and academics busy themselves pointing fingers and proffering solutions. Predictably, free markets come under fire as the source of widening inequalities of wealth and income. As exponents of deregulation and free markets, libertarians frequently find ourselves charged with living in a fantasy world, tuning out problems of inequality.

We libertarians do it to ourselves: When the subject inevitably comes up, too many of us become palpably uneasy, defensively insisting that inequality just isn’t a problem, that what we ought to look at is standard of living or some other metric. “Capitalism is great for the poor — we swear it!” Libertarians must accept the cold fact that inequality is a very big problem indeed.

But we needn’t regard inequality as a weak point in our arguments for economic freedom, or as an issue on which we simply cannot win. Existing economic relations are not the product of freedom of exchange or legitimate private property. Libertarians actually hold the high ground on the inequality issue. Liberty and equality in fact complement and reinforce one another, the former naturally resulting in the latter.

Individualist anarchists like Lysander Spooner held that “extremes in both wealth and poverty” resulted from “positive legislation,” substituting arbitrary laws for natural laws and “establish[ing] monopolies and privileges.” In capitalism, Spooner argued, the owners of capital receive special power in the economy — power having nothing to do with simple freedom of production, exchange, and competition. Considered holistically, state intervention redounds to the benefit of the rich and politically connected, economic elites with special access to those who write and implement the rules we are all forced to live by.

These interventions are not perfect, and certainly the country’s system of monopoly capitalism is overlaid with a veneer of measures ostensibly intended to protect workers, consumers, and the poor. But no such measure ever compromises the fundamental purpose of state intervention — to dispossess rightful owners, putting the multitudes at the mercy of employers. The historical purpose of the state, in short, is permanent class war, the use of state power to insulate a socioeconomic nobility.

The political left is thus quite right about inequality, even while tending to be quite wrong about freedom, individual rights, and markets. Market anarchists favor both freedom and equality, espousing a stateless society in which the ultimate law is equality of freedom and authority.

Genuine open competition is a dissolving and dispersive force. Libertarians should stop making apologies for today’s staggering inequalities as if we arrived at this place via laissez faire and sovereignty of the individual.

What’s missing from the political discussion is any mention of the Federal Reserve at all — even as  new executive  Janet Yellen takes the reins of arguably the world’s most powerful economic institution. Even worse, the very political ideology that has created systemic poverty, the top down approach to economics, guides the current conversation.

That discussion needs to shift to the mechanisms of poverty and how to liberate ourselves from them. Until we do so, we will continue to witness a precipitous increase in wealth disparities.

Income inequality restricts market opportunity. Extreme inequality — characterized by rampant poverty — chains our inclined labor. Economist Amartya Sen describes the persistence of poverty as the robbing of human potential, stating “poverty is not just a lack of money. It is not having the capability to realize one’s full potential as a human being.” Poverty, then, is the reduction of human contributions to the market, to the commons and, ultimately, to the human condition.

Systemic poverty exists because people are not able to access or create markets. In order to alleviate poverty we need to struggle for market liberation. This calls for the rejection of authorities who wish to direct economic systems. As witnessed in bailouts, corporate aid/welfare and their subsequent restrictions to economic diversity, it is the political class that benefits from the top down approach. In the liberated market, the populace will labor to create new ways — alternative institutions and new federations — to serve one another. Outside the current system, in the true public arena, markets can create a new mutualism, social goods, common interests among market actors and individual prosperity.

Centralized authority steers our creative output away from the dreams, aspirations, ethics and labor of individuals and to the benefit of the politically connected. In the halls of power, economic policy is decided upon, announced to the populace and defended against popular protest. In this model, outside knowledge is imposed upon us. But the individual and the collective know how to better the community. The decentralized, networked, stigmergic revolution works around command and control to co-ordinate and cultivate markets.

If we are serious about tackling income inequality and systemic poverty, we must first realize that any authority over the market is illegitimate. Then, on an individual basis, we can decide to directly engage or work around the current political system to dismantle such authority. Liberated economic systems will arise out of the old order, granting each individual sustainable agency over his or her own labor.

The key to success and actualization of human potential is, as always, liberty.

But we needn’t regard inequality as a weak point in our arguments for economic freedom, or as an issue on which we simply cannot win. Existing economic relations are not the product of freedom of exchange or legitimate private property. Libertarians actually hold the high ground on the inequality issue. Liberty and equality in fact complement and reinforce one another, the former naturally resulting in the latter.

Individualist anarchists like Lysander Spooner held that “extremes in both wealth and poverty” resulted from “positive legislation,” substituting arbitrary laws for natural laws and “establish[ing] monopolies and privileges.” In capitalism, Spooner argued, the owners of capital receive special power in the economy — power having nothing to do with simple freedom of production, exchange, and competition. Considered holistically, state intervention redounds to the benefit of the rich and politically connected, economic elites with special access to those who write and implement the rules we are all forced to live by.

Feed 44:

• http://www.c4ss.org/
• http://www.youtube.com/user/c4ssvideos
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/c4ss-media/id872405202?mt=2
• http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/smash-walls-radio/c4ss-media?refid=stpr
• https://twitter.com/C4SSmedia

Bitcoin tips welcome:

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