Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Liberty is constrained by three things: opportunity, impinging on the liberty of others, and the need for allies. Part of living peacefully with other people is the implied Treaty we have with them, most important of which is showing them respect in public, whether or not you respect them in private. In public the rules of liberty are very strict, especially in the market: you, the vendor, can sell what you want; you can choose what you market, but you can't discriminate who you market to. In a public market, it's not up to vendors who their customers are. If a meat-eater comes into a vegan restaurant and orders a steak, you can say "we only serve vegan food," but you can't say, "we don't serve carnivores." That's the Liberty Agreement we all live by: I will treat you respectfully in public, and visa versa. If you want some self-righteous food discrimination, go eat at your church.

The most famous example of this vendor discrimination attitude is making Wedding cakes for gay couples: your business may be to bake cakes, but it's no business of yours who buys them. Similarly, there's nothing a vendor can do to stop selling cupcakes to pedophiles; nor people who commit domestic violence; or even speed a lot. The decision is not up to a private party in a public market about who they sell to. Conversely, though technically legal, if you don't shop in a store because the owner, or somebody who works there, or the shoeshine boy out front, has a problem with homosexuals, then it's you, the customer, who are violating the social contract.