Why the Market? Markets As Social and Moral Spaces (Essay‪)‬

Introduction Since Adam Smith, classical liberals and libertarians have accepted that the division of labor is at the root of the wealth of nations and that the scope of the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market. (1) The expansion of the market is thus seen as critical if nations are to grow wealthy. Many critics of classical liberalism, capitalism, modernity, globalization, markets, and so forth, do not see the expansion of the market as an entirely positive or even a benign process. They worry that the growth of the market is at the expense of community. As the number of products and services available in the market increases, the importance of the house, the club, the union hall, and the town square, they assert, decreases. Moreover, they claim, as the market expands not just the importance but also the viability of these community spaces declines. Critics of the market also worry that the market encourages vice and has little or no scope for virtue. The market, they insist, transforms us into greedy, materialistic, and soulless social and moral eunuchs.