“Someone who can’t be trusted to run his or her own life cannot be trusted to run the lives of other people.”
My friend Don Boudreaux was kind enough to allow me to reprint this defense of libertarianism. I believe it is required reading for the informed and uninformed alike.
Here’s a letter to a new and very angry correspondent.
Ms. Becker:
I’m sorry that you so strongly disapprove of my recent AIER column in
defense of libertarianism. Your core complaint is this:
You libertarians have ridiculously high opinions of human nature,
assuming most people can approach saintliness. Serious
conservatives don’t. We are sober. We are grounded in reality.
We know that man is weak, fallible and most of all tempted into
sin.
With respect, I disagree that we libertarians have such a high opinion
of human nature. Precisely because we understand, as you put it, that
humans are “weak, fallible and most of all tempted into sin,” we insist
that the power of some individuals to coerce other individuals should
be kept to an absolute minimum.
No serious libertarian argues that freedom produces anything close to
heaven on earth, with no one succumbing to self-destructive or anti-
social temptations. But we recognize two related realities that are
missed by many conservatives as well as by progressives.
First, when adults are free to use their own (and only their own) private
property – including their own bodies – under a rule of law, each
individual personally experiences more of the costs of his or her bad
behavior, and reaps more of the fruits of his or her good behavior, than
is the case when that freedom is curtailed. This ‘internalization’ of
consequences obviously doesn’t turn everyone into a saint – or
prevent everyone from being a devil – but it does keep to a minimum
the amount of ‘bad’ behavior while encouraging the greatest possible
amount of ‘good’ behavior.
Second, any curtailment of libertarian freedom necessarily empowers
some individuals to coerce other individuals. Given that we humans
are indeed imperfect creatures, it is you – not any libertarian – who is
unrealistically optimistic about human nature. I cannot fathom your
faith that political power transforms individuals who cannot voluntarily
manage their own affairs well into individuals who can coercively
manage other individuals’ affairs well.
A truly sober and realistic assessment of human nature leads people
of goodwill naturally to a wish to reduce as much as possible the
power of the state.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market
Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
