Kinh tế thị trường tự do đã được hấp dẫn cho chúng tôi - cũng giống như trước đây hấp dẫn cho người Hà Lan và tiếng Anh - bởi vì nó cung cấp một lợi thế cho các cầu thủ kinh tế chi không có sự can thiệp để bảo vệ giữa | Humanism and Government A Humanistic Rationale for Government Despite its primary concern with the individual humanism differs from laissezfaire and libertarianism in that it is not implacably opposed to government. Rather than regarding government regulations as necessarily counterproductive an unhealthy intrusion of incompetent politically motivated micromanagement a humanist view encompasses the awareness that many of these regulations were adopted to protect individuals from the law of the jungle from flagrant exploitation by unscrupulous profit maximizers. Rather than regarding government as essentially depraved a humanist appraisal of government follows from its fundamental respect for the individual. The Kantian dictum of treating persons as ends in themselves does not extend to institutions. Whereas persons are always to be treated as ends rather than merely means institutions are no more than a means to enable people to improve their quality of life. To the extent that an institution has the opposite effect it should be changed or eliminated. This applies to government and the imperative to change or eliminate institutions which no longer served the desired end was regarded as a sacred civic duty by our founding fathers. seeing the primary source of value as the individual and seeking to change governments that suppress that value does not make humanism opposed to government not even to interventionist government. But from a humanist perspective government has no intrinsic value. its value lies in what it can add to the lives of its citizens. The ideal is a synergy between society and individuals 151 Myths of the Free Market society providing an environment conducive to individuals developing their potential individuals appreciating that environment and helping to sustain and improve it. In the spirit of this symbiosis and unlike laissez faire and libertarianism humanism is willing to entertain a positive role for government. The notion that government can
