Yes, not unregulated, but free in the proper sense of the word. Christians are free, not that we are free to sin but from it.
In the same sense, a truly free economy fully supports the freedom of its participants, not that they are free to take advantage of each other but that they are free to mutually benefit one another in their trade and labor. This requires a lack of compulsion (which is socialism), acknowledges ownership (which communism does not), does not systematically favor the already rich and powerful (which is crony capitalism), does not artificially favor larger organizations over the individual (which is corporatist capitalism), and rather endorses a subsidiarity in power, both economic and political (which all forms of totalitarianism rejects).
Our current system in the US is dangerously close to the latter three, unfortunately. The three-letter-agencies have created such a regulatory system that the individual is at an artificial disadvantage to compete with the larger organizations. In this way, I say our system is not free enough, not that we do away with regulation altogether but make it favor a subsidiary and decentralized system rather than a large and centralized one.
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Totally agreed.
Wow excellently condensed form of presenting the differences of localism through a positivistic lens. Sometimes movements are defined by what they are not but I like that you described it in a way that it can be worked towards instead of haphazardly working away from something else.
Regarding your last point, how does momentum build to overturn or eliminate wide sweeping regulations, especially federal ones? It seems like for those there’s a ton of inertia/precedence already in place that making a push to eliminate bureaucracy can feel “revolutionary” or “forcing redistribution” which people are very much turned off of (and rightly so). In other words, how does localism really gain influence in the political sphere when it hinges on short term losses by not playing the game as the crony capitalists and corporatists want it and played?