Business and Government

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in siding with Jack Philips, who is the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado. According to CNN, a gay couple, David Mullins and Charlie Craig, came to Philips’ cake shop in 2012 and asked him to bake a cake for their wedding, which was going to be performed in another state. However, Philips, being of Christian faith, refused to make the cake for the couple because he believes that homosexuality is a sin. The couple then preceded to file a complaint against Philips, citing a state anti-discrimination law which later ruled in their favor. Philips then appealed the case to the Colorado Court of Appeals where he won the case. The court held that he was not required to bake the cake out of the exercise of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

But this quote is what I really want to concentrate on. Last year, David Mullins said in an interview that, “This case is about more than us, and it’s not about cakes, it’s about the right of gay people to receive equal service.” I disagree. Call me homophobic or whatever you want, which isn’t true at all, and this might sound harsh and be an unpopular opinion, but with me being a Libertarian, I don’t think the government has a right to tell a business who they have to offer service to.

I believe that any business should be able to refuse its services to anyone for any reason. For example, if the owner of a hair-cutting shop is a racist and hates black people and doesn’t want to extend their business to them, in my opinion, that person should have every right to do that. There shouldn’t be any lawsuit against the business, and the government, neither federal, nor state, nor local, should get involved and force the business to serve black people, or any other type of person a business is discriminating against.

But what will happen instead is that in free market capitalism, if customers really don’t like what’s happening, that shop will eventually be run out of business from one of two things, or both. One, they’ll make less money because they’re servicing fewer people, or two, and more likely, word will spread that the owner is racist or discriminates against a certain type of people and everyone will stop coming and the shop will be run out of business. As Ron Swanson puts it, “The free market is a jungle, it’s beautiful and brutal and should be left alone. When a business fails it dies and a new better business takes its place. Just let business be business and government be government.”

To wrap everything up, no one, no matter what gender, skin color, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or even personal beliefs, has a right to be served by any business. Also, yes, every person is equal and no one type of person is great than the other, but every business should have the right to serve who they want to serve and refuse business to whom they want to refuse business. If I go to a restaurant and they refuse to serve me food because I’m a Christian or because of my political views, I would accept that and walk out; they clearly don’t want my business, and I’m fine with that. I wouldn’t file any lawsuits, and I would go on with my life.