“Freedom means not only that our economic..."


“Freedom means not only that our economic activity ought to be free and voluntary, but that government should stay out of our personal affairs as well.  In fact, freedom means that we understand liberty as an indivisible whole.  Economic freedom and personal liberty are not divisible.  How do you plan to exercise your right to free speech if you’re not allowed the economic freedom to acquire the supplies necessary to disseminate your views?  Likewise, how can we expect to enjoy privacy rights if our property rights are insecure?” -Page 109 of The Revolution, A Manifesto

"The ideas of liberty and a free economy have not..."

"The ideas of liberty and a free economy have not spread with equal force everywhere in the world; nor have they been implemented with consistency.  The results have been overwhelming all the same.  Between 1980 and 2000, India's real GDP per head more than doubled, and in China real income per capita rose by 400 percent.  Poverty in China went from 28 percent in 1978 to 9 percent in 1998.  In India, it fell from 51 percent in 1977-1978 to 26 percent in 1999-2000.  "Never-before," writes economist Martin Wolf, "have so many people- or so large a proportion of the world's population- enjoyed such large rises in their standards of living." " -Pages 100 & 101 of The Revolution, A Manifesto

"Now, plenty of politicians talk a good game..."

"Now, plenty of politicians talk a good game about low taxes, and some even claim to want to decrease spending as well.  Few seem to mean it, if their voting records are any indication.  But if we want more economic freedom and a healthy and robust economy, serious inroads need to be made into federal spending.  Otherwise, tax cuts will simply lead to more borrowing, more inflation, and the continued decline of the dollar.  As I write [2008], we are paying about $1.4 billion every day just for the interest on the national debt.  Because our government refuses to live within its means, every single day we spend $1.4 billion and receive absolutely nothing in return." -Pages 80 & 81 of The Revolution, A Manifesto

"Now, whatever its moral and philosophical attractiveness..."

"Now, whatever its moral and philosophical attractiveness, the free economy I have just proposed, in which no one is allowed to use government power to loot anyone else, is sometimes criticized as a "pro-business" philosophy that favors the well-to-do. This criticism could not be more off target.  As I have said, businessmen, too, want special favors from government and lobby energetically for all kinds of wealth transfers to themselves.  Very rarely does a business owner come to my congressional office to congratulate me on my fidelity to the Constitution.  They come by because they want something, and what they want is usually not authorized by the Constitution. 

I do not claim that businessmen as a class are underhanded or wicked, since I do not believe in making prejudicial generalizations about any group.  I am saying only that they are just as likely as anyone else to favor government intervention on their behalf.  I have nothing but respect and admiration for honest businessmen.  Their contributions to our society are indispensable and almost completely unsung.  The entrepreneur who risks everything he has in order to realize a dream- and improve our lives in the process - is engaged in a worthy and honorable pursuit that earns him precious little respect in our society." -Page 77 of The Revolution, A Manifesto

"Economic freedom is based on a simple moral rule..."

"Economic freedom is based on a simple moral rule: everyone has a right to his or her life and property, and no one has the right to deprive anyone of these things.

To some extent, everyone accepts this principle. For instance, anyone going to his neighbor's home an taking his money at gunpoint, regardless of all the wonderful, selfless things he promised to do with it, would be promptly arrested as a thief.

But for some reason it is considered morally acceptable when government does that very thing. We have allowed government to operate according to its own set of moral rules. Frederic Bastiat, one of the great political and economic writers of all time, called this "legal plunder."

Bastiat identified three approaches we could take to such plunder:

1) The few plunder the many.
2) Everybody plunders everybody.
3) Nobody plunders anybody.

We presently follow option number two: everyone seeks to use government to enrich himself at his neighbor's expense. That's why Bastiat called the state "the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

Now here's a radical idea: what if we pursued option number three and decided to stop robbing one another? What if we decided that there was a better, more humane way for people to interact with each other? What if we stopped doing things we would consider morally outrageous if done by private individuals but that we consider perfectly all right when carried out by government in the name of "public policy"? -Page 69 & 70 of The Revolution, A Manifesto