This is an interesting article written from the perspective of social Darwinism as the driving force behind the so-called invisible hand of Adam Smith, which Smith himself never articulated in that way.
Arnhart essentially argues that crime is simply pursuing rational interest and government should get out of the way and let natural order arise spontaneously.
Most of the economic development in the developing world–particularly in Latin America, Africa, and many parts of Asia–is through the economic self-development of the illegal economy. In Lagos, Nigeria, the largest city in Africa, over 80% of the working people are in the underground economy.
Much of the global trade between the developed and developing countries is through the illegal economy. For example, poor people in Nigeria working in illegal markets can save enough money to travel to China, where they buy Chinese goods illegally and then have them smuggled back into Nigeria for sale, avoiding restrictive trade laws and huge import duties. There are some estimates that as many as 300,000 Africans are living in Guangzhou, the south China trading city formerly known as Canton.
This confirms Adam Smith’s insight that the evolved human propensity “to truck, barter, and exchange” is so strong that it can be expressed in a complex economic life even without the support of a legal system, because people can solve their own economic problems for themselves through self-organizing social orders.
For example, Neuwith describes how street merchants in Lagos have set up their own private courts for settling disputes between dealers and customers. One arbitrator explained: “Arbitration is our work. Most often we arrive at a peaceful solution. This is how we have harmonized the market.” This is what one should expect from human beings who have evolved natural instincts for cooperation.
Smith thought illegal economic activity could be seen as an expression of the “system of natural liberty” or “natural justice.” So he suggested that we should identify a smuggler as “a person who, though no doubt highly blamable for violating the laws of his country, is frequently incapable of violating those of natural justice, and would have been, in every respect, an excellent citizen, had not the laws of his country made that a crime which nature never meant to be so” (Wealth of Nations, Liberty Fund edition, p. 898).Let the free-for-all begin.
Smugglers are part of the greatest evolutionary story of humanity, which is the progressive improvement in human life that comes from human beings asserting their freedom to trade.
Evonomics
What Bernie Sanders and David Sloan Wilson Should Learn from Adam Smith
Larry Arnhart is a Presidential Research Professor of Political Science at Northern Illinois University
