Market allocation of goods and services depends upon peaceable, voluntary exchange. Under such exchanges, the essence of our proposition to our fellow man is: If you do something I like, I'll do something you like. When such a deal is struck, both parties are better off in their own estimation.

Billions of these propositions are routinely made and carried out each day. For example, take my trip to the grocery store. My proposition to the grocer is, essentially: "If you make me feel good by giving me that gallon of milk you own, I'll make you feel good by giving you three dollars that I own." If my proposition is accepted, the grocer is better off, since he values the $3 more than the milk and I'm better off, since I value the milk more than the $3.

Contrast the morality of market exchange with its alternative. I might go to my grocer with a pistol and propose: give me a gallon of milk or I'll shoot you. Or, I might lobby Congress to take his milk and give it to me. Either way I'm better off but the grocer is worse off.

Lest there's misunderstanding, there are legitimate and moral functions of government, namely that of preventing the initiation of force, fraud and intimidation, and we're all duty-bound to cough up our share of the cost. All other matters in our lives should be left to civil society and its institutions.