Free is a Four Letter Word

“If you hate government so much, why don’t you move to Somalia?” an exasperated friend once told me after a heated discussion on free markets. Of course, freedom breeds prosperity; In Somalia people are largely free of government interference, but they are not at all free to pursue their own self-interests. Like most libertarians, I think government has an essential role to play in protecting property rights and enforcing contracts. It seems that anyone who questions the mission-creep of government is automatically branded an anarchist

So why did my friend call me an extremist? Why is it that despite doing more for the betterment of the common man than anything else in history, freedom, industrialisation and capitalism have such a dismal reputation whereas government and socialism, which have done so much to hold us back from progress, largely escape blame?

“Yes, private interests create prosperity. But this has to be controlled, otherwise greedy corporations will bleed us dry. We need more government oversight and regulation, look at what happened in 2008!” goes one of the more common myths and revisionist histories that informs public opinion. Blame for the Great Recession is placed squarely on corporate greed instead of on the bubble-blowing monetary policies of government. The Great Depression too, is blamed on private greed rather than the disastrous policies of Hoover (going against the good advice of Mellon). Even the great nineteenth century is remembered as an era of squalid working conditions, child labour and great poverty instead of the era that inherited these problems and finally addressed them.

Perhaps it is because the engines of prosperity: individual self-interest and freedom contrast with the moralisations of Judeo-Christian myth. We have inherited the medieval notions that avarice and usury are sins and that poverty is virtuous. Concern with the passage of time, with worldly affairs and with money were seen as a profound lack of trust in the divine. To go naked and to be celibate: ultimate resignation from this world, underscored your devotion to the next. It seems that the holy monk and the evil Jewish moneylender are still being projected onto people and institutions.

“Without government, who will feed the hungry? House the homeless and look after us when we are old?”. Generations of socialism has made us forget some fundamental points about welfare, healthcare, education, transportation and dozens of other areas dominated by government. Firstly that there were solutions to these problems before the government got involved and crowded private solutions out. Secondly, that it might well be advantageous to pool our resources together to solve these problems, but governmental organisation is the most wasteful and least effective use of our collective resources: there are alternatives. At the heart of this lies a deep distrust in people; in people’s generosity, kindness and creativity. Those same ingredients that make us materially wealthy also create the greatest flourishings of philanthropy and art. It is no surprise that the RSPCA, the Red Cross, the Olympic Games and all of the greatest non-profit organisations can all trace their founding to that freest of centuries.

The ever-increasing scope of government, the millions of pages of rules and regulations and the insane belief that failed government programs need expansion: this to me is extremism. Pulling back on the reigns and fighting against unbridled government overreach, this is not talking about eliminating government, only restricting it to its proper functions so that it may focus on them. When pointing out the all too numerous and catastrophic failures of government and harping on about the virtues of a free market system, libertarians can come off as idealists who are trying to engineer a government-free utopia - and some of them are. This brand of anarchy should not be confused with the more pragmatic views of limited government, sound money and laissez-faire economics. Though it would be nice to have a clean separation of state and economy, we should prioritise our efforts to focus on the biggest problems: ZIRP and overregulation. And to my friend who sent me to Somalia I say: If you like government so much, why don’t you move to North Korea?

Come on.. it's not so bad.