Friday, July 15, 2011

How Would (Insert Issue Here) Work in the Free Market?

The last item I want to mention from Issue 20 is a short piece titled "Meeting Practical Objections to the Free Market." Everyone who wants to move away from government coercion eventually gets asked questions about how ___________ (name your issue) would work in a free society. This article by Carl points out how helpful it is to respond by asking the person how he or she thinks it could work.

I can think of many reasons why this is a good idea, one big one being that asking questions gets me to just shut up and listen.

But I really like this because it puts both people in the conversation on the same team, working together instead of trying to refute the other person's points.

What could likely end up as another dead-end argument now has the potential to turn around into a discussion where both parties end up brainstorming together on possible ideas. And society is not going to change until we start working together to formulate possible alternatives to using government coercion.

3 comments:

Paul Z said...

Debbie,

My only comment to this is that I would not use the term 'free market'. The term has been bastardized by the statists to such an extent that most people think that we do have a free market economy.

Kent McManigal said...

I've done this in the past, and should try to remember to do it more. It works sometimes, but other times the person honestly had no clue where to begin, and I had to end up making the proposals which they then kept objecting to (so it was back to the "normal" way these debates go).

Anonymous said...

I use the advice of a former teacher : when the student is ready, the teacher appears. One can jump start the student by asking questions. Pick the issue by listening to the student. Have a conversation; do not lecture.