Perfectionism, Withdrawal, and Paralysis
About 25 years ago, I received a letter from a self-professed Christian. He wanted me to buy him. Literally.
He offered me the opportunity to buy his lifetime services as an indentured servant. All I had to do was to pay him survival wages in goods and services -- no money.
Money, you see, was made up of Federal Reserve Notes. The Federal Reserve is evil. Totally evil. He did not want to touch filthy lucre. It would corrupt him. He sought purity.
He didn't mind at all that I didn't mind using Federal Reserve Notes. My corruption was basic to his offer. I would make the corrupt bargains with the Federal Reserve. He would remain pure as my loyal servant.
I declined the offer.
Yes, the Federal Reserve is evil. It is not evil incarnate. It has lots of competitors for this role. But the system is evil. Rothbardians say this. Greenbackers say this. But other economists avoid using moral adjectives to describe banking. They prefer the FED to a gold coin standard, especially an exclusively private gold coin standard.
I use fractional reserve banks. So do you. Are you burdened with guilt? If your boss were to double your salary, would you feel twice as guilty? Well, not twice. Marginal utility theory would estimate less than twice. The last dollar in your raise would be worth less to you than the first dollar. But pretty guilty, all things considered.
What's that? You say you would not feel guilty at all?
But what about the money? Isn't that close to a pact with the devil herself?
It seems that you are not a perfectionist.
MUTUAL EXCHANGE
In a mutual exchange, both parties expect to benefit. Each party wants what the other one is selling. Each party has separate goals, but they both can achieve their goals less expensively through mutual exchange.
But wait! If I do a deal with a person who uses the profits from the exchange to pursue evil, am I partially to blame? Am I an unindicted co-conspirator?
Consider this case. Every summer, Mark Skousen runs the Freedom Fest convention. He is an economist. That is to say, he's cheap. He hates to overpay. So, he holds Freedom Fest in a Las Vegas hotel.
"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." This rule does not apply to the money he makes in Vegas. Trust me on this.
Is he practicing evil in paying for a hotel in Vegas? Am I evil when I attend Freedom Fest by staying in the hotel where he negotiated a discount?
I don't think so. Yet some of the money goes into the coffers of some hotel that made a deal with Skousen.
I do not gamble. So, the pricing structure of Las Vegas hotels is wasted on me. I am not a free rider, but I am a cheap rider. My model is Skousen. I use him as my agent in dealing with Las Vegas hotels.
We both have Scrooge McDuck as our model. (By the way, the man who wrote the stories for Scrooge McDuck comics in the 1960's and 1970's also wrote a great cartoon booklet on the Federal Reserve: The Official Counterfeiter. Download it here.)
FAITH IN THE POWER OF EVIL
The moral perfectionist who does not want to make deals with evil doers must restrict his market. He is paralyzed with fear. In the back of his mind is the warning from the Shadow. "What evil lurks in the hearts of men?" The scriptwriter got that from Jeremiah. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it (Jer. 17:9). That's yours. That's mine. Yes, it's even Lamont Cranston's.
But the moral perfectionist is haunted by this. He does not want to be a participant with evil.
He does not understand this fundamental cause-and-effect principle: "Honesty is the best policy." Or this one: "Right makes might." Or this one: "Nice guys finish first . . . in marathons."
He thinks that evil wins in mutual exchanges. The righteous person achieves his goals, and the unrighteous person achieves his goals, but the aggregate outcome weighs in on the side of evil.
This outlook is basic to all forms of perfectionism. I call it pessimillennialism.
GOOGLE AND YOUTUBE
YouTube is owned by Google. Google is the #1 traffic site. YouTube is #3.
I use Google AdWords for marketing the Ron Paul Curriculum. Google makes money on these ads. The RPC makes more than it pays Google. Direct-response marketing is Scrooge McDuck marketing.
I use YouTube to post some of my videos. So does the Mises Institute. Maybe YouTube makes money on some videos. It makes none on mine or the Mises Institute's. It loses money. We are free riders.
Here is my point: in most mutual exchanges, righteousness advances farther than unrighteousness. The exception: when unrighteousness is selling evil. The model is the pimp or the seller of addictive drugs to addicts.
If I went to Las Vegas to gamble or to gawk at silicon-endowed ladies, evil would win. But I am too busy at Freedom Fest to gamble. I am looking for deals. Freedom Fest's unofficial motto: "Deals R Us." It's a great place for making deals.
Now, if Dolly Parton is performing, I might attend a show. But I will look only at her wig. (Dolly is worth $500 million. Great voice, stupendous wigs.)
But perfectionists don't see it this way. They see purity as withdrawal. They see victory as retreat. They see an extension of the free market as a tool of evil. They see evil as the hare that keeps running. They see good as the tortoise that keeps plodding. They see perfection as the tortoise that sits tight, pulls in their head, and waits for the race to end.
There is nothing like an immobile tortoise to put in a cage. My dogs used to play with them.
Perfectionists see life as a playing field that is tilted toward evil. They think nice guys finish last.
They do not see that evil is paralyzing. They do not see that it is self-destructive. They do not believe the psalmist:
Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors (Psalm 73:1-19).
The free market may make bad men rich, but only when they are meeting the demand of people who are forced by economic necessity to pursue productivity most of the time.
Sin is for spare time. "The devil loves idle hands." The competitive pressure of the free market places a high cost on leisure. We keep busy. Consumers police us. Competitors look for weaknesses.
The free market reduces the domain of sin. Sin is counter-productive. Drunks are not reliable producers. Embezzlers get caught. These sorts of people wind up in drunk tanks, prison, or politics.
CONCLUSIONS
The Federal Reserve System is evil. But you can donate digital money to righteous causes. You can use it to fund a new business that seeks customers to please.
The answer is not withdrawal. The answer is a program of redemption: buying back the world, deal by deal. To redeem is to buy back. Moral perfectionists forget this.
The free market is the arena of deals. It is therefore the arena of redemption.
May the best men win. Women, too.