Race Relations Are Improved by Free Markets, Not Collectivist Politics

Capitalism forces people to serve their customers if they want to make money. And that's a very good thing.

by  Richard M. Ebeling
October 25, 2017

Politically we seem to be living in trying times. The political polarization, as portrayed in the mainstream news media, appears to be intensifying with even acts of destructive violence on the streets and campuses of American cities.

At the same time, pictures out of Houston during and following Hurricane Harvey show empathetic assistance and cooperation between people and groups that supposedly are in heated contention with each other.

How do we reconcile this?

To begin with, I am persuaded that the claim that racial and social “class” tensions are on the rise in America is not true. In fact, I would argue that in everyday interaction and association, race relations are far, far better than they were, say, twenty-five years ago, and most certainly compared to fifty or seventy-five years ago.

Race Prejudices of a Few Decades Ago

When I was a young boy, the evening news carried the imagery of violence on the streets of some Southern cities as people ma…