I had, for a long time, often questioned whether or not an ecosystem is a good analogy for an economy (their prefix suggests it might), however I do not think it is.
Now, to clarify, while I would say that Wheylous’ points are certainly valid, I do not think that they, in and of themselves, necessarily refute the analogy. This is mainly because metaphors and analogies are usually supposed to simplify an issue in order to extrapolate the primary moral, lesson, or assumption from what the analogy is trying to explain. This is to make the point of an issue easier to understand for the person you propose the metaphor or analogy to.
For instance, I could make the analogy that “a pet dog is like a really non-judgmental, super trusting, super loyal person. Lock him and your wife up in a trunk for two hours, and when you come back, see which one is happy to see you.” To which Wheylous could reply, “except a dog does not have logic, reason, or a memory long enough to remember that you put him there” (I don’t know if they do or not), but you see, the point is that dogs are extremely loyal compared to people. Their relative reason is not the issue; their loyalty is.
So, Whelous, while your points are true, they do not, in and of themselves, debunk the analogy as valid.
As a side note, supposedly there have been apes who have stored up food in order to spend time to carve hammers out of rocks to use as weapons and tools to open nuts and fruits; at least I was told this in a thread I started about animals and action that you (Wheylous) commented on a few months ago. I don’t have sources or know if it is true.
Now, back to the analogy. Let’s say that you go ahead and propose this analogy to a non-Libertarian. You say to this person, “the economy is as delicate as an ecosystem. Any intervention into that ecosystem, like, say…removing the predators (wolves, foxes, etc.) will have disastrous consequences for the ecosystem. Without the wolves, there will be nothing to keep the elk from overpopulating, thus driving out the sheep and deer, which trample the riverbanks, which…causes X, which Causes Y, which causes the whole system to malfunction, killing many animals, resulting in earlier than natural extinction (at least in the area). Well, the market is no different. For instance, if you artificially pump money into the economy, it results in inflation, which results in…(Austrian Business Cycle Theory). Therefore, you see that intervention into the free-market is bad just like intervention into an ecosystem is bad.”
Having set up this scene, this brings me to what I imagine many will reply with:
“But don’t Libertarians treat the ecosystem as a resource to be tapped into for private profit by individuals in the free-market?” What the person is trying to imply with this question is that, in their opinion, you must admit one of three things.
Either you are:
(1) an evil hypocrite,
(2) a short-sighted fool, or
(3) Intellectually dishonest
Here is why they will think one of these three things:
(1*) If you believe your own analogy (and the assertions made by that analogy) to be valid, then you are an evil hypocrite because:
(a) You have acknowledged that intervention into an ecosystem is damaging to that ecosystem, yet
(b) as a Libertarian, you believe that it is ok for the market to intervene into the ecosystem because ecosystems are someone’s property, which is simply a resource that the owning individual has a right to tap into for private gain. However,
(c) At the same time, you are not ok with the state intervening into the Market-economy.
Conversely, if you do not believe your own analogy (and the assertions made by that analogy) to be valid, then you are:
(2*) at best, a shortsighted fool who used an analogy that didn’t conform to his own ideological convictions, and only after presenting the analogy did you realize that you believe two things:
(a) It’s ok to intervene into an ecosystem, but
(b) It’s not ok to intervene into an economy…oops
And this analogy only half conforms to these two beliefs.
(3*) or, at worst, you are intellectually dishonest for attempting to use an analogy you do not believe to be valid in the first place. You are a scoundrel for attempting to persuade this person using cheap appeals to his/her dearly cherished personal pathos.
So, where does this leave us? I don’t know with any great deal of certainty.
You could say “Well, private individuals will take better care of the environment than the state will. Just look at that one case of the state-park employees removing the predators.” But still, as Libertarians we do favor intervention into the environment for the mining of resources, the study of animals, the hunting and raising of animals for cattle and livestock, and a multitude of other reasons. In fact, our very ability to improve our lot in life hinges upon our ability to exact scarce resources from the environment and make them our own. This may not necessarily mean that we are causing the extinction of species by screwing up ecosystems, but we are, in no uncertain terms, intervening into the environment, which includes intervening in all kinds of ecosystems in all sorts of ways.
Not only that, but as believers in private property rights, we also believe that, should a man come to own a large piece of property containing an entire ecosystem, he has the full right to intervene into that system, and he also has the right, however unlikely it may be, to totally ruin that ecosystem intentionally, so long as he is not aggressing against anyone else (any human being).
So, I do think that it would be intellectually dishonest for us to make this analogy. While intervention into an ecosystem does not necessarily mean that we are ruining it or damaging it, this fact is precisely why this analogy might not be a good one; because to make it, we must equivocate intervention into an ecosystem with intervention into an economy as harmful. There is no good state intervention into an economy, however, there are certainly good and reasonable interventions into an ecosystem.
I suppose, however, that one might be able to validly assert that there is good intervention into a free-market; namely the intervention of voluntary individuals acting in that economy. This is where terms and their definitions become important. If my making a voluntary transaction in the free-market is intervention in that market, then it could be said that there is such a thing as beneficial intervention in the free-market, rendering the analogy of the ecosystem valid as well. However, I have never heard the term ‘intervention’ used in this way, and I think ‘intervention’, in the economic sense of the word, implies a coercively forceful and uninvited thrusting of oneself into the economy in order to influence economic events to deviate from what would have occurred absent this forceful thrusting (think Bastiat’s seen and unseen).
Anyway, I hope that my points were clear. It was a bit difficult to format this answer but I tried to make it as straight forward as possible. I would love to hear what you guys think about my analysis. I think it is an interesting question, and one I have thought about a lot over the years.