If Markets Are So Wonderful, Why Can’t I Find Friends at the Store?

Now that all but the most stubborn ideologues have granted the importance of markets as a promising device for organizing efficient allocation, we run the danger of a particular form of analytical sloppiness. To claim that markets are powerful is far from saying they are omnipotent. In fact, the relative strengths of markets as an organizing device can be shrouded by hyperbolic claims of market puissance. The argument here is that markets have significant limits and that by acknowledging those limits we can focus on the important question of the nature of the optimal interaction between markets and governments. For illustrative purposes, this essay argues that consumers cannot typically expect to find the kinds of associative links we ordinarily seek from friends. The kind of caring that we anticipate from friendships can best be found somewhere other than at the store. Recognizing market limitations, such as this one, permits us to use markets in conjunction with other institutions to create a more fully human economy.