When Goods Cross Borders

If it is committed in the name of God or country, there is no crime so heinous that the public will not forgive it. -Tom Robbins, writer (1936- )


I was thinking about the history of Europe. For centuries Europe has seen nations and tribes slaughtering each other. I wondered what made them stop killing each other and form one union with one currency the EURO. I decided it was free trade. All of the centuries of bloodletting and destruction could have been avoided with free trade.

So many young men killed in the European wars. Lucky for us Edward Jenner was not killed. He discovered the power of vaccinations. What would the minds of those who were killed have discovered had they been allowed a full life?

I remembered a quote somewhere about, "When ideas cross borders, armies do not." I tried Google and came up with the following essay about goods crossing frontiers, which goes along with the reason Europe is no longer killing each other. Europe has its problems, but nothing like the innocent deaths and destruction caused by their past bloodlettings.

Free trade is the best hope for mankind to overcome dogmas and war lovers.

Charles Tolleson
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Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American; Author, Science Friction

Where goods cross frontiers, armies won't.

Where goods cross frontiers, armies won't. Restated: where economic borders are porous between two nations, political borders become impervious to armies.

Data from the new sciences of evolutionary economics, behavioral economics, and neuroeconomics reveals that when people are free to cooperate and trade (such as in game theory protocols) they establish trust that is reinforced through neural pathways that release such bonding hormones as oxytocin. Thus, modern biology reveals that where people are free to cooperate and trade they are less likely to fight and kill those with whom they are cooperating and trading.

My dangerous idea is a solution to what I call the "really hard problem": how best should we live? My answer: A free society, defined as free-market economics and democratic politics - fiscal conservatism and social liberalism - which leads to the greatest liberty for the greatest number. Since humans are, by nature, tribal, the overall goal is to expand the concept of the tribe to include all members of the species into a global free society. Free trade between all peoples is the surest way to reach this goal.

People have a hard time accepting free market economics for the same reason they have a hard time accepting evolution: it is counterintuitive. Life looks intelligently designed, so our natural inclination is to infer that there must be an intelligent designer - a God. Similarly, the economy looks designed, so our natural inclination is to infer that we need a designer - a Government. In fact, emergence and complexity theory explains how the principles of self-organization and emergence cause complex systems to arise from simple systems without a top-down designer.

Charles Darwin's natural selection is Adam Smith's invisible hand. Darwin showed how complex design and ecological balance were unintended consequences of individual competition among organisms. Smith showed how national wealth and social harmony were unintended consequences of individual competition among people. Nature's economy mirrors society's economy. Thus, integrating evolution and economics - what I call evonomics - reveals that an old economic doctrine is supported by modern biology.