Excerpted from my WORLDmag.com column, "Liberty, Justice, and Shopping."
...This summer, I have been researching a project. As I have not been at the college much, the library has not been at hand. So I went to Amazon.com to see what the market was charging for the titles I needed. Then the fun began! For the last month I have been delighting myself buying a steady trickle of books for prices that thrill a Scotsman's heart. For just $4, I bought George Gilder's 1980 classic, Wealth and Poverty...in hardcover...with a dust jacket...not a mark in it...delivered to my door. ...
What has this to do with liberty? In this commonplace experience, I notice three examples of the justice and goodness that ordered liberty allows, in this case, through a free market.
First, the market provides broadly for people's needs. ...
Second, the market is not a respecter of persons. ...
Finally, the market provides a kind of distributive justice. ...
Liberty as exercised in an ordered but free marketplace is part of God's good design for human well-being. It's just a part. It's not sufficient on its own. But no discussion of its shortcomings can proceed in fairness without first recognizing these great goods.
Someone has recommended Bookfinder.com in place of Amazon. I'm always happy to introduce competition into the marketplace, especially when someone starts looking like a monopoly.
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