Classical Liberalism and Economics

  Classical Liberalism and Economics

     

     Every economic system humans have come up with produces some form of inequality. While people are equal in the sense that we should all share the same basic rights, I think we can all agree that we are not equal in other measures. A simple look around the room you're in, or your school or your job reveals people of different heights, shapes and abilities. Some people work harder, learn faster or are otherwise more effective at certain tasks. This is a reality of the world we live in. So if your goal or the goal of any society is to rigidly equalize outcomes across the nearly infinite spectrum of different people it will fail. But at least in the West, our system produces the most wealth that benefits even the poorest among us, much better than any other system. Historically, attempts to strictly equalize outcome have only resulted in people being equally miserable. 
      This is the essence of the libertarian economic philosophy. The freedom to choose and to let the free market and the individual person dictate price, need and law. 
      Some people mistake this argument as advocacy for no laws and no goverment. The argument is not to that government does not have a role, but it's to say that the government should be confined to specific roles that are decided by the people, by voluntary agreement and that any huge change in the rules of the game should happen gradually, and be decided upon democratically. When too much is required of the government it will underperform the roles that are necessary for it to perform and underperform the roles that are thrust upon it, that could be much more effectively dealt with by the individual and the free market. 

     The evidence for the argument for an economy and a country that is decentralized is seen in our history. In 1776, 80 to 90 percent of Americans were on farms and it took roughly 9 people working full time (about a 16 hour work day) to just feed their family. Flash forward to 1978 less than 5 percent of Americans were on farms and those that were could feed their family, 19 other families and have some left over to sell or do what they wish. This was not made possible by a central planning board, that planned the growth of farms and of the farming industry. How do we know this? In 1978, the countries that do follow this model had 50 percent of their population on farms. This is not to say that the government had no role in this process, that were no rules. Management of land and other simple government services provided a very necessary framework for the individual to pursue his own interests.

      In our modern political sphere, the world Liberal has come to mean something totally different from its original usage. In Great Britain and other countries, the word Liberal still maintains some of its original meaning, but that's quickly fading. Prominent classically liberal thinkers are people such as Milton Friedman, F.A Hayek and more recently, people such as Jordan Peterson, who has gained lots of support for his advocacy for freedom, choice and a return to the individual. 

      America was founded on an extraordinary promise of one simple concept. Freedom. Freedom for the individual person to conduct their lives as they see fit. By no means has our country been perfect, we have faltered many times in sticking to these ideals. But the ideals that our country was built on must remain central to our country as we move forward in the future. The choice to stay free is up to each and every one of us as Americans.

Source:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberalism/
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/16/why-the-classical-liberal-is-making-a-comeback-218667
https://mises.org/library/what-classical-liberalism
https://miltonfriedman.hoover.org/collections;jsessionid=5199CDCF6B68AE68EF3EFCDD15B1E634