Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

170 What To Make of Itare largely compulsory. Both sets of decisions are current—the contrast between them is not one between present andpast. To be sure, personal liberties and property rights in asociety may have first been well established two or threehundred years ago, but it is the current or present custom orlaw on them that matters for the market system. Some ofthese determinations are being revised today, and they willcontinue to be so day by day indefinitely into the future.Market transactions cannot be undertaken until theseprior determinations have been made. Market transactionsdo not start from scratch. Until it has been somehow decided,by custom and law on property, that certain assets areyours, you cannot offer them in the market. Nor can you offeryour labor until it is somehow decided, by custom andlaw on liberties, what options you are to enjoy to do so.Although custom and law withhold some things as assetsfor the state, in market systems most assets are ofcourse assigned to persons. The assignment may be nomore than some clothing or, at the other extreme, it may beland, buildings, securities and collectible loans. Customand law on liberties in our era usually forbid offering anyone’slabor other than one’s own—slavery is thus prohibited,although many market societies permit parents to puttheir children’s labor on the market. Custom and law alsotry to forbid some occupations: hired killers and drug dealers,for example. More than law, custom closes off some occupationsto members of a racial or ethnic group; and bothcustom and law on, say, admission to universities, open forsome young people but close for others opportunities for socialmobility.The pattern of the assignments of assets and skillsthrough the path of history and inheritance varies from societyto society, with one society favoring some groups, an-