Capitalism and community

I was talking with my colleague Larry Salzman yesterday about eBay. How fantastic it is that, in all the times I’ve bought things on eBay, I’ve only been screwed once, and even that was probably not the fault of the seller. He pointed out these magnificent commercials for eBay. Check them out—particularly “Belief” and “Clocks.”

Conservatives often attack the free market by saying that it somehow demolishes community by “turning people into numbers” or regarding them as “atomistic individuals.” The liberal version is that capitalism “alienates” people by leaving them in a cold world of heartless fellow creatures seeking only money and not caring about personality. The reality is just the opposite—free trade, productivity, giving value for value, contribute to a feeling of mutual respect that builds real communities, not on the basis of coercion and fear, but respect and freedom.