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Childcare in the Free Market Society of F. A. Hayek
(University of Oregon, 2024) Bernard, Myra
As free market structures increasingly dominate contemporary life, it is important to examine their influence on social structures as well as economic ones. Seeking to answer questions such as How do market forces interact with social functions like caretaking and interpersonal connection? and Are the values defining social and economic life compatible, or rather, at odds? this paper discusses the limitations of the prolific economic and political theorist F.A. Hayek's argument for a free market economy as the most effective tool in organizing and maintaining a functional society. In a case study of the act of childcare, I argue that a market framework fails to support key elements of social life necessary to a flourishing society, such as relationality and caretaking roles. In demonstrating the market's fundamental incompatibility with the role of childcare through (1) the market’s inability to appropriately evaluate the worth of childcare and (2) care labor's incongruity with market incentives, I argue that Hayek’s epistemological argument defending the free market as the most effective means of social and economic coordination is erred. Instead, a recognition of and deference towards the influence of social values within economic life is necessary in advancing an equitable society that recognizes and adequately supports the endeavor of childcare.