The Sovereign Consumer

One of the most significant features of the free market is in the sovereignty of the consumer.  Ordinary people decides for themselves what they will consume and undertake the effort necessary to produce or obtain it.   And so it follows that "the mass" of the mass market is not a collective that makes decisions collaboratively, but an amalgam created to give observers the mistaken sense that a group of people do not function as individuals.

Hence "the market" is an observer's perspective upon the ways in which individuals produce, consume, and trade with one another - each by their own volition, though often voluntarily imitating the behavior of others.   Each person decides what he wishes to consume, what he wishes to produce, and with whom he will engage in exchanges of his product for the product of others.

Institutions such as corporations are merely a method by which people organize their productive activity in response to the demands of other people for things to consume.   The demand of consumers creates the market for goods, and suppliers attempt to satisfy that demand.   In that sense, the corporation serves the consumer, never the other way around.

It is in this sense that the worker has charge of himself, which is to say he has authority over his own choices rather than being subject, serf, or slave to an authority who makes all of his productive and consumptive decisions for him.   In his consumption, he gives incentive to others to produce for him by offering financial reward.  In his production, he is servant to others and must produce that which they desire in order to gain what they wish to pay him for producing it.   From this perspective, it is clear that all revenue of producers is granted to them by consumers in exchange for service.

The capitalist, who uses his wealth to generate more wealth, is a servant to the market: he can only increase his wealth by delivering what others demand at a price they are willing to pay.   Granted, there is opportunity for the cheapskate ad swindler to take advantage by means of deception - but this cannot be done consistently and sustainably.   The capitalist who fails to actually satisfy the desire of a market will exhaust the supply of gullible customers.

Such a system is based on the presumption of rational thought, but has the flexibility to accommodate the irrational.   A consumer who spends unwisely and does not obtain what he actually needs will soon learn from his mistake, and a producer who invests unwisely and does not make what is actually needed will likewise learn.   Poverty and bankruptcy are the ultimate ends of unwise decisions, but both are temporary rather than permanent conditions for the individual who is capable of learning.  Said another way, the freedom to decide for oneself comes with the responsibility to decide wisely or bear the consequences. And ultimately, to accept such a system requires a basic respect for one's fellow man and his right to be his own sovereign.