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Natural Harmony of Interests

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bigfield

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While introducing key concepts of Libertarianism, David Boaz claims that people have a natural harmony of interests:

Natural Harmony of Interests. Libertarians believe that there is a natural harmony of interests among peaceful, productive people in a just society. One person’s individual plans — which may involve getting a job, starting a business, buying a house, and so on — may conflict with the plans of others, so the market makes many of us change our plans. But we all prosper from the operation of the free market, and there are no necessary conflicts between farmers and merchants, manufacturers and importers. Only when government begins to hand out rewards on the basis of political pressure do we find ourselves involved in group conflict, pushed to organize and contend with other groups for a piece of political power.
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https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/key-concepts-libertarianism

Boaz claims that that the market "makes many of us change our plans", but history shows that people manipulate markets using various tactics. In reality, people aren't "peaceful"; they cause market failures by price-fixing, limiting supply, fraud, sabotage etc.

Boaz also blames government for creating inter-group competition and political power struggles. However, politics is fundamentally a contest for social control that pre-dates the evolution of human beings, let alone the emergence of the state, and that contest is an ubiquitous property in human society. A society without groups is not a stable system, because at least some people will always have something to gain by organising into groups, including governments, corporations, churches, guilds, trade unions etc.
 
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