day no. 16,518: the separation of merch and state

"Properly understood, the case for capitalism is not a case for license or for laissez faire. It is a case for national wealth as a moral good; for the interest of the mass of consumers as the guide of policy; for clear and uniform rules of competition imposed upon all; for letting markets set prices, letting buyers make choices, and letting producers experiment, innovate, and make what they think they can sell -- all while protecting consumers and punishing abuses. It is a case for avoiding concentrations of power, for keeping business and government separate, and for letting those who can meet their own needs do so. It is a case for humility about our ability to know, and therefore about our capacity to do." — Yuval Levin

The marriage of the market and the ministry of the State is Crapitalism at its very finest. 

"Each of the moral aspirations we hope for about our society, and each of the economic objectives we have in a free enterprise economy, are undermined by an overly cozy relationship with business and government, where the collective power of the state is allowed to pick winners and losers. Our case for a market economy is a noble one, but it is undermined from start to finish when we fail to condemn the insidious effects of crony capitalism." — David Bahnsen, There's No Free Lunch

Crony capitalism is Crapitalism. 

Liberty demands a separation of Merch and State. The separation of Church and State is often touted as the sole safeguard of civil liberties, but it typically is promoted by those looking to separate the Church from its existence. Liberty does not command the State to be allergic to the Church. It does demand sphere sovereignty, but not sphere segregation. The far greater threat to liberty is the fusion of Merch and State. When the State artificially inflates the odds of a particular industry or referees through regulation the game to the benefit of one of the participants, the only result is richer refs and poorer hoi polloi. 

2 Peter 2:19

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

The Marketplace cannot deliver liberty. It does not possess it. It can and does promise it, but it cannot deliver it to you, even if you pay for the upgraded shipping. It can advertise it, but it cannot produce it. It can sell you on the idea, but it cannot manufacture it.

And the more the Market gets in bed with the Ministry of the State, the less liberty anyone has. Neither has freedom to offer. They are servants. Money and the Magistrate make for terrible masters. The servants of corruption cannot confer purity. The slaves of sin cannot successfully sell salvation. They have none to give. They can only invent counterfeit hells to save you from. They can manufacture an artificial damnation in order to advertise a synthetic salvation, but they cannot deliver the real thing. Lucre and the Lawmakers make for wonderful servants when they serve the Lord, their God and Maker, but apart from Him, they are merely tinpot paladins and milquetoast messiahs.