Chapter 4 - Socioeconomic Disequilibria

Summary

Markets do not arise in a vacuum, nor are they self-sustaining. They are undergirded by foundational institutions. They are sustained by formal and informal rules that are enforced through legal means or public moral suasion (forte of justice). There is a requisite minimum level of trust and mutual solicitude among its participants (forte of agape). Agape and justice complement each other—mutually reinforcing, substituting, or making up for each other’s limitations. Akin to “homeostasis” in biology wherein the human body balances various fluids, cells, and organisms to function properly, there is a delicate equilibrium that must be maintained between agape and justice for a functional socioeconomic life.