The status of children in the free market is an area that has not been fully explored by theorists. Consequently, free-market advocates may not agree unanimously with all of the ideas expressed in this treatment of this topic (or, for the same reasons, the next topic, viz., protection of the mentally incompetent). Only some general principles are presented here. As always, rational judgment is required to apply them to the many complex situations that arise in practice (cf. pp.
The status of children in a free society is essentially transitional, as can be appreciated by examining two extremes: the status of infants and that of persons on the threshold of adulthood. A newborn infant is almost totally dependent on parents or adult guardians, not only for nourishment and physical needs, but also for supervision of the infant's behavior to insure his or her safety. Even in a free society, we would not hesitate to stop the child who tries to crawl into a busy street, because we know that the young child's capacity to use reason to cope with his or her environment is still largely just that: an undeveloped capacity and not an actuality. At the other end of childhood, the adolescent on the verge of adulthood is (ideally) ready to begin making the decisions and enjoying all the freedoms that apply to an individual in a free society. If the adolescent has been raised successfully, then the transition from infancy will have been a gradual one—that is, he or she will have learned to handle responsibility by progressing from minor decisions to more and more important ones.
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