Despite UW's reputation as a left-leaning university, if you've ever taken an economics or business class at the university you'll notice the curriculum tries to instill the notion that unbridled free trade is the answer to practically every problem the world faces. And within the intellectual framework of the dismal science, their logic is unassailable. Free trade maximizes efficiency and utility, products are cheaper and everybody wins. It is the ultimate positive-sum game.
Some philosophers of high capitalism have even suggested that loyalty to the nation-state is an outmoded concept, that we should instead submit ourselves to what they term a \market order."" To them, the ""Wal-Martization"" of America is a good thing. Replacing high-paying factory jobs with low-wage, no-benefits service jobs, they say is progress.
This logic recognizes no intrinsic value in non-material human needs. Community? Stability? Fraternity? That's for the Luddites and narrow-minded parochials. Rational people are not supposed to submit to any emotionally ""thick"" notions of political loyalty. For them, the next logical progression of capitalism is to turn humans into homo economicus, with a hefty dose of Xanax and Prozac courtesy of your friendly neighborhood pharmaceutical giant.
Jacob J. Rabas
UW-Madison student
