Those Pesky Pillars of Freedom and the Role of Law - revised


The real secrets to economic recovery
An earlier version of this post appeared as part of
Think that government can deliver lower prices on demand? History says no

Classic liberals or libertarians believe that the free market is capable of producing more, better, faster and cheaper results than anything mandated by government. The voluntary exchange of goods and services supported by the uniform rule of law is the key to abundance.

Free market, as in free to choose. No regulations on what you can buy. No regulations on what you can sell. No regulations on what you can import or export.

That's the first pillar. Remember it well. It's what the politcos and bureaucrats and technocrats want you to forget.

The voluntary exchange of goods and services supported by the uniform rule of law is the key to abundance.

It is as close to a universal economic truth than we have found yet. The freer the market, the more wealth created for everyone involved.

That doesn't mean that there won't be catastrophic failures. These are necessary, just as necessary as the runaway successes. The only way to "protect" you from the disasters is to shield you from achivement.

From this simple idea follows the second pillar of classic liberalism, minimum government involvement creates the widest distribution of resources and freedom. Something else to remember and something else those government types don't want to acknowledge. It's not about laws, the secret is in the freedom.

Minimum government involvement creates the widest distribution of resources and freedom.

Classic liberalism does not promise wealth unlimited for every single person. It does promise that wealth increases according to human effort as long as each person freely chooses what to do. It's a trendline. It's not always going to be up, but over time the average will climb. Even today we see evidence of that. Compare the poor today to the poor of 1909 and see who has a better standard of living.

Anything else usually degenerates into an income redistribution scheme or an indecipherable mess, sometimes at the same time.

From this principle follows the third pillar, individual choice is absolutely vital to freedom. Not membership in groups, not what government can or can't do, but one simple thing that you dare not forget if you value your liberty. Don't let anyone else forget either.

Individual choice is absolutely vital to freedom.

This in turn gives us the proper role of law in society.

Law exists to protect individual choice and the free exchange of goods and services, so long as that choice and exchange do not interfere with the freedom of another.

It really is that simple. Everything else is just a matter of making sure that someone has no more legal privileges than everyone else.

Update - OOPS! Forgot the last no. Fixed now.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Tue - January 27, 2009 at 04:05 PM  Tag


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